Erma later enrolled in the University of Dayton, a Catholic college. She lived in her family home and worked at Rike's Store, a department store, where she wrote humorous material for the company newsletter. In addition, she worked two part-time jobs - as a termite control accountant at an advertising agency and as a public relations person at the local YMCA. While in college, her English professor, Bro. Tom Price, commented to Erma about her great prospects as a writer, and she began to write for the university student publication, "The Exponent". She graduated in 1949 with a degree in English, and became a lifelong active contact for the University — helping financially and participating personally — and became a lifetime trustee of the institution in 1987. In 1949, she converted to Catholicism, from the United Brethren church, and married Bill Bombeck, a former fellow student of the University of Dayton, who was a veteran of the World War II Korean front. His subsequent profession was that of educator and school supervisor. Bombeck remained active in the church for the rest of her life.