Arnold's Story: July 1951 afterword

Arnold returns twice for Harvard Medical School class reunions in 1956 and 1976. The class of 1951 also includes the first African American woman to graduate from Harvard Medical School: Dr. Mildred Fay Jefferson.

Arnold is in the back row, far left.

Arnold is on the far right, third row, with a dark shirt and glasses, sporting a full goatee

In July 1951 Arnold starts his year-long internship in surgery at Stanford University Hospital, where he meets his future wife Newlin Ashmore. They marry in September 1952 and move to Boston for Arnold to complete a PhD in Physics as a key part of his interest in biomedical research. By then he has decided that his contribution to the world would not be as a medical missionary but as a medical researcher. Arnold's career takes them across the country to Texas, California and Florida. In Florida they settle down permanently in September 1960. 

Arnold passed away in July 1986 at the age of 64, just one month before his official retirement from the University of Florida.

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Arnold's Story: 1951 Aesculapiad

The Aesculapiad is the Harvard Medical School yearbook. The 1951 Aesculapiad lists Arnold with future plans to be a medical missionary in Asia. He is also seen here as a member of Phi Beta Pi medical fraternity and the Boylston Medical Society.

Arnold is in the back row, far right

Arnold's bookplate (from his copy of the 1951 Aesculapiad)

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Arnold's Story: September 17, 1950

Tor Richter, another classmate from Harvard Medical School, writes Arnold with news from his class at Harvard Medical School. Some new names show up now: Al Skinner, Sarah, Bill Manson, Rutch, Al Damon, Marv Gordon, and Dave and Frances and Donald.

Arnold is now deciding whether he should pursue medical research or stick with his original plan to become a medical missionary in Korea.

next post  September 22, 1950

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Arnold's Story: April 14, 1950

Bill mailed that letter and check late in the day on Wednesday, April 12th, and it has already arrived on Friday, April 14th. 

Arnold had planned for a clerkship at the University of California, Berkeley, but now decides to do an internship at a hospital in Twillingate, Newfoundland, Canada. He thinks it will prepare him better to become a medical missionary in Korea. The extra money he saves flying coach instead of deluxe about $90 in 1950 (about $1000 in 2021) will cover his expenses in Newfoundland for three months.

next post  April 28, 1950

previous post  April 12, 1950 WEN

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Arnold's Story: April 19, 1949

For the first time Arnold sends a typed letter to his family. Among other things, he plans to take his National Board exams in September and needs to review quite a bit ahead of time so he will stay and work in Boston over the summer instead of going to McCloud for seasonal employment. 

Mrs. Underwood was Ethel van Wagoner Underwood, wife of missionary and educator Horace Horton Underwood, who was assassinated by communist terrorists while hosting a Faculty Women's Club meeting in her home. She had an enormous correspondence, among whom was Arnold. He never met her in person but did correspond with her, and she in turn encouraged his desire to become a medical missionary.

next post  April 26, 1949

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Arnold's Story: August 18, 1948 AHN

Arnold's letter to Cliff and Jean Cummings go returned to him:

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Arnold's Story: July 23, 1948

Hazel Nevis writes her son Arnold from Santa Barbara, where her husband is being treated at the Sansum Clinic for diabetes. 

Arnold is working in Whitehorse, California, in a lumber camp to earn some extra money for his studies at Harvard Medical School. He has long expressed a desire to become a medical missionary (presumably in the Presbyterian Church, the family religion on Hazel's side), but in this letter there is a hint that he might be rethinking his plans. Hazel and Arnold shared a strong religious bent (along with Arnold's sisters/Hazel's daughters Dolly and Laura). Older brother Leonard was far less religious, perhaps even an atheist or at best an agnostic. Hazel's husband Bill grew up Roman Catholic but married outside that church when he wed Protestant Hazel, so he was denied mass at Catholic services through much of his life. Near the end of his life, Hazel converted to Catholicism so that Bill could have mass said at his funeral. She did not mind the conversion, and in fact enjoyed the religious conversations with the priests during that process; and as a grandmother she no longer minded signing the document in which she promises to raise her children in the Catholic faith.

(Hazel's pagination is off for the last three pages.)

next post  July 28, 1948

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Arnold's Story: January 31, 1948

Arnold's handwriting is closer to print-script than cursive. Later in life he writes entirely in block letters. His cursive was nearly unintelligible. We see him sign this letter "Arn", though his nickname in general was "Arnie".

Virus "X" was an influenza outbreak in December 1947 and January 1948.

The Chocolate Soldier was a 1941 musical directed by Roy Del Ruth. It uses original music from the Oscar Straus 1908 operetta of the same name, which was based on George Bernard Shaw’s 1894 play Arms and the Man but using a plot from Ferenc Molnár's play The Guardsman. 

The Treasure of the Sierra Madre is a 1948 Western written and directed by John Huston. An adaptation of B. Traven's 1927 novel of the same name, set in the 1920s, it starred Humphrey Bogart, Tim Holt and Walter Huston (the director's father).

next post  March 8, 1948

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