Edward H. Arnold
Edward Henry Arnold, a civil engineer who helped construct the Delaware Aqueduct for the New York Board of Water Supply, died of primary myelofibrosis at home in San Antonio, Tex., on Monday. A frequent summer resident of Montauk, he was 92.
Born on Dec. 22, 1926, in Mount Vernon to the former Clara Nellie Plume and Charles Frederick Arnold, he graduated from Isaac E. Young High School in New Rochelle, where he was captain of the stage crew and a member of the track team.
During his senior year in 1944, he enlisted as an aviation cadet in the Naval Reserve, and completed the Navy’s accelerated one-year college-training program at Wesleyan University.
He went on to study engineering at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, where he joined the Navy’s R.O.T.C. program. After spending five weeks at a Navy training center, he became a seaman second class on the U.S.S. Oklahoma City CL-91 stationed in San Francisco.
He received an honorable discharge from the Navy in 1946, and returned to Rensselaer, where he completed two bachelor’s degrees, one in science and one in civil engineering, over the following two years.
After graduating, he received a commission in the Navy as an ensign in the Civil Engineer Corps. He also obtained a private pilot’s license.
While working on the Delaware Aqueduct, he lived in a boarding house in Claryville, where he met Marion Griffing, an Amagansett native and a teacher, who would become his wife of 68 years. The couple raised a family of five in Kinderhook, N.Y.
He traveled to Turkey in 1950 to help reconstruct a coal mine, and the following year he was recalled to military service during the Korean War. He and his wife were stationed in Adak, Alaska.
Over the course of his military career, he received the American Defense Service Medal, the World War II Victory Medal, the National Defense Service Medal, and the Naval Reserve Medal.
After being released from active duty in 1953, he worked as an engineer for various companies, including Texaco.
While living in Kinderhook, he served as a member of the planning board, the zoning board of appeals, the zoning commission, and as town engineer. He was a member of the Dutch Reformed Church, and the Kinderhook Elks Lodge 2530.
He also started a surveying business out of his home, which he ran for 30 years. By the time he retired, he had covered nearly every foot of Columbia County, his family said.
During his time in Montauk, he loved to hike along the dunes, swim in the ocean, sail, and fish. He also loved to ski, make movies on the computer, explore the Catskill Mountains, and meticulously maintain his lawn with his John Deere tractor.
He is survived by his wife, and five children, Patricia Buss of McLean, Va., Gray Kendrick of San Antonio, Laurie Arnold of Denver, Amy Gumaer of Chevy Chase, Md., and Kurt Arnold of East Greenbush, N.Y. Three brothers, Richard Arnold of Prescott, Ariz., Robert Arnold of Coral Springs, Fla., and Kenneth Arnold of St. Augustine Shores, Fla., and six grandchildren also survive. His eldest brother, Charles, died before him.
A memorial service will be held at the Kinderhook Reformed Church at a later date. The family suggests memorial contributions to the church at kinderhookreformedchurch.com.