Sid Salter
- For the first time, a key Scouting award will bear the name of Arnold, a recognition columnist Sid Salter says should have happened years ago.
Mississippi U.S. Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith of Brookhaven is lending her time to an event on July 2 in Starkville that’s a fundraiser for the Scouting program in northeast Mississippi. At that event, she will receive an award noting her service to the youth in the program.
For the first time, that award will bear the name of someone for whom such an award should have been named years ago – the late John Robert Arnold, who died August 23, 2017, at the age of 94. Until suffering a fall that produced complications that ended his life, Arnold remained active, vital and engaged in service to his family, friends, and his fellow man.
To look at John Robert Arnold as he passed his 90th birthday, one would not suspect that during his lifetime, he had been one of Mississippi’s wealthiest, most popular and most influential individuals.
John Robert drove a nondescript, aging station wagon that had seen its share of dings, scrapes and dirt roads. His glasses were tied on his head with dingy white string. And long before Air Jordans or other such footwear came along, he had taken to wearing shoes that had actual springs built into the heels to correct a physical ailment that affected his feet.
We attended church together where we both sang in the choir, shared weekly fellowship in the Starkville Rotary Club and worked together as adult Scouters in the former Pushmataha Area Council of the Scouting program, now part of the Natchez Trace Council, which serves youth in 22 northeast Mississippi counties from Macon to the Tennessee state line.
He taught the Seventh Grade Sunday School class at his church for more years than the over-60 pastor who preached his funeral could recall. He trained as many kids as would attempt it to sing all 12 verses of “Children, Go Where I Send Thee” at Christmas.
A native of Wattensaw, Arkansas, Arnold moved to Oktibbeha County at the age of three. He lived in the Sessums community. From childhood, a strong part of his life revolved around the Sessums Community Club. He assumed leadership of the group in 1950 and led it until his death.
John Robert sang with great enthusiasm, whether in Sunday worship, on holidays, or during civic events. Truth is, he sang as he drove or as he walked or as he worked. And work, he did. Throughout his long life, John Robert launched manufacturing operations that produced furniture, Herschede clocks of all sizes, and Motor Guide trolling motors. Those businesses were known as Arnold Industries.
Additionally, under the flag of Dodge City Enterprises, Arnold owned a Chrysler dealership, several Coleman’s Barbeque restaurants, and a retail appliance business. He formed a tour bus business that offered bus tours of all continental U.S. states, Canada and Mexico.
Beyond the First United Methodist Church in Starkville, Arnold was a pillar of the broader Methodist Church, serving as a trustee of Camp Lake Stephens, Wood Junior College and Rust College.
A devoted Rotarian, at age 91, John Robert still worked his concession stand shift at the Rotary Rodeo fundraiser, folding and assembling hundreds of popcorn boxes.
In 2017, during his final illness, John Robert was a patient at North Miss. Medical Center in Tupelo. At the same time, two floors above, I was a patient in the Oncology ward being treated for cancer. I went down the elevator and found his hospital room.
As I tried to tell him we were all praying for him, John Robert steered the conversation to the future of the Scouting program. It was on his mind until the end.
This week, we will honor Sen. Hyde-Smith for lending her time and effort to help our Scouts with the presentation of the very first John Robert Arnold Champion for Scouting Award.
Upon Arnold’s death, writer Shannon Bardwell published a column in the Commercial Dispatch newspaper that used a quote from the abolitionist George William Curtis that perfectly fit Arnold: “I think that to have known one good, old man – one man, who, through the chances and mischances of a long life, has carried his heart in his hand, like a palm-branch, waving all discords into peace – helps our faith in God, in ourselves, and in each other more than many sermons.”
