02/17/2026
Bobbie Thomas Umbach
1943 - 2026
Bobbie Thomas Umbach’s long and wonderful life completed a beautiful circle in her 83rd year. On February 15, 2026, she went to her eternal home with the Lord from her childhood home in Gold Hill, Alabama.
Affectionately known as “BB” after the birth of her first grandchild, she will be remembered as a gifted, hardworking, humble servant who put others over herself throughout her life. She used her many talents to support her family in every way and to enrich the lives of others. She saw “the good” in everyone and always had a positive attitude. Her closest friends say she embodied the virtues outlined in Proverbs 31:25-31 - strength, dignity, wisdom, and faithfulness among them.
She was born in Auburn and raised in Gold Hill, Alabama, among multiple homes built and inhabited by the Heath family at the turn of the century. One of those homes - the one she lovingly restored - became the place where she spent the final decades of her life. The middle of three daughters, she grew up surrounded by extended family members who helped raise her and spent their entire lives in the Gold Hill community. She later attended the Auburn City Schools, where she formed lifelong bonds, including one with her future husband, Arnold, whom she began dating in the fifth grade.
Raised in a family of schoolteachers, Bobbie’s educational and professional journey spanned multiple decades, institutions, and subjects. She earned a BS in Home Economics from Auburn University in 1965 and an MA in Special Education from the University of Alabama in 1970. She enjoyed a distinguished career in education in the Auburn City School system, Lee County Schools, the Auburn Board of Education, and the Auburn United Methodist Church, where she taught Sunday school. After years of teaching, Bobbie made a career change and took ownership of The Villager Frame Shop, a business she devoted countless hours to. After becoming an empty nester, she returned to the classroom to pursue a PhD at Auburn University, which she earned in 1990. She spent the remainder of her career as the Director of Special Education for the Auburn City Schools until her retirement in 2003.
Retirement, however, was a bit of a misnomer. Bobbie continued consulting for the Alabama State Department of Education, supervising future professional educators, taught a course at Auburn University, served on four volunteer boards, and was a regular volunteer at local organizations. Perhaps motivated by the arrival of her grandkids, she eventually took up scrapbooking with gusto. This labor of love became her textbook for meticulously documenting the family’s history in pictures and in words. Her background in framing served her well as she located, restored, and cataloged an impressive collection of family photographs, interviewing relatives to capture the stories behind each visual memento. Her scrapbooks rest on shelves in her family members’ homes across the country, and many hours have been spent flipping through the pages, reliving, and learning about the past. They have become her lasting syllabus for generations to come.
In her later years, she slid into her role as a grandmother and great aunt with passion and love. She relished hosting her four grandsons and only granddaughter, as well as many great nieces and nephews, in her beloved Gold Hill home, where she would patiently spend many perilous hours in the passenger seat of “the mule,” exploring every square inch of her family property with underage drivers at the wheel. The only fare she would collect from these many adventures was the inevitable opportunity to share a bit of history about the land that they were exploring. Her patience routinely outlasted the charge of a good golf cart battery.
Bobbie is survived by her sons, Arnold William Umbach, III (Trip) and wife Ashley of Birmingham, AL, and Matthew Heath Umbach and wife Debbie of Boston, MA. She is also survived by five grandchildren, William Swede Umbach (Caroline), Robert Dowie Umbach, Warren Watkins Umbach, Taylor Kelly Umbach, and Logan Thomas Umbach, one great-grandson, Evans Arnold Umbach, and many beloved grandnieces and nephews in South Carolina.
She was predeceased by her parents, Lorenzo Herbert Clark and Evelyn Thomas Clark, by her sisters Luanne Thomas Rey and Nancy Thomas Morris. She dearly loved, in sickness and in health, her husband of 56 years, Arnold William Umbach, Jr., who passed away in 2020.
She leaves behind a family bound by love, a history carefully preserved, and countless people better for having received her care and compassion.
The service will take place at 11:00 am on Saturday, February 28, 2026, in the chapel at Auburn United Methodist Church, 137 S. Gay Street, Auburn, AL 36830. Visitation begins at 10:00 am.
In place of flowers, memorial donations may be made to Compass Church, a church in Kellyton, Alabama, started by Bobbie’s neighbors of 15 years, Allen and Michelle Isbell, and the parents of her “adopted grandchildren,” or the Alpha Delta Kappa Educational Sorority Scholarship Fund.
Compass Church
Checks:
Compass Church
1201 US Highway 280
Kellyton, AL 35089
Online:
https://wearecompass.churchcenter.com/giving/to/bobbie-umbach-memorial-fund
Alpha Delta Kappa Education Sorority
Checks (“scholarship fund” on memo line)
ADK
718 Burke Place
Auburn, AL 36830
