Thomas Hart Armbruster '80 receives McDaniel Alumni Professional Achievement Award
THOMAS HART ARMBRUSTER RECEIVES ALUMNI PROFESSIONAL ACHIEVEMENT AWARD FROM McDANIEL COLLEGE
Ambassador Armbruster of San Antonio is a 1980 alumnus of the college
WESTMINSTER, Md. – Thomas Hart Armbruster of San Antonio has received the alumni professional achievement award from McDaniel College. He is a 1980 alumnus of the college.
Presented annually during McDaniel’s Homecoming, the alumni professional achievement award is presented to a graduate who has gained distinction in his chosen field or profession and whose accomplishments reflect admirably on McDaniel College.
A career foreign-service diplomat, Armbruster was sworn in as Ambassador to the Republic of the Marshall Islands on August 16, 2012, and served as Chief of Mission of the U.S. Embassy in Majuro until May 2016. The Marshall Islands receives over $100 million a year in Compact of Free Association development assistance and is home of the Reagan Space and Missile Defense facility on Kwajalein.
His foreign service career began in 1988 and included overseas postings to Vladivostok, Russia; Dushanbe, Tajikistan; Nuevo Laredo, Mexico; Moscow, Russia; Havana, Cuba and Helsinki, Finland. Domestic assignments included Diplomat in Residence at City College in New York City and Polar Affairs Officer in Washington, D.C. Armbruster was the Chief U.S. Negotiator for an emergency response treaty with Russia and he led trade and counternarcotics missions to Afghanistan.
Since leaving the foreign service, he has worked as an international consultant and is currently Lead Inspector for an Office of the Inspector General report on the South Central Asia bureau of the State Department.
He is the recipient of Career Achievement, Meritorious and Superior Honor awards from the State Department and a Presidential Award of Honor from President Hilda Heine of the Republic of the Marshall Islands. Publications include a chapter in the book “Inside a U.S. Embassy” and articles in the Foreign Service Journal, Ambassadors Review and State Magazine, among others.
In addition to his degree from McDaniel, he holds a master’s degrees from St. Mary’s University in San Antonio and the Naval War College in Newport, R.I.
