Domesticity, Career Recapitulation, Philosophical Musings
At this juncture of Charles Armstrong’s biography in science, it is probably
appropriate to pause and consider the more personal aspects of his life after his joining
the United States Public Health Service; these have been alluded to previously only
briefly. In contrast to Armstrong’s materialistic and pragmatic reasons for choosing his
wife in 1916 while he was in internship and contemplating a career in the private practice
of medicine, old fashioned romance and true love directed his choice when he finally
married his college classmate (1910) Elizabeth Alberta Rich. They were married June 21,
1920 and the union lasted until 1965 when Mrs. Armstrong passed away. The marriage
occurred in the interval between Dr. Armstrong’s completion of the influenza epidemic
study on Kelleys Island, his arrival at the Hygienic Laboratory and his involvement with
the typhus epidemic at the San Juan Navajo Indian reservation. Their only child, Mary
Emma, was born August 15, 1924. Dr. and Mrs. Armstrong with Mary Emma was a
close-knit, strong family unit who remained mutually supportive during their lifetimes.
Mary Emma still maintains ties to family members in Ohio.
Mrs. Armstrong and Mary Emma also had critical pressures and anxieties during
those episodes when Dr. Armstrong became seriously ill from the infections acquired
from the organisms to which he was exposed in the laboratory. During at least one of
these episodes, when he had tularemia pneumonia in Hamilton, Montana, his physicians
alerted them on several occasions to be prepared to make a final visit away from
Washington, DC in expectation of his impending death. Fortunately, he survived. Despite