Willard B. Arnold III ’51 died on February 8, 2017, in Waterville, Maine.
(The following was published in The Waterville Morning Sentinel, February 10, 2017:)
WATERVILLE – Willard Bailey Arnold III, 89, of Belgrade died on Feb. 8, 2017.
Bill was born in Waterville on April 20, 1927, the son of Willard B. and Bertha (Terry) Arnold. Educated in the Waterville Public Schools, he graduated from Phillips Exeter Academy, Bowdoin College, class of 1951, a member and officer of the Beta Theta Pi fraternity, and earned his master’s degree in retailing from New York University. He also served in the United States Naval Reserve (Hospital Corps) during World War II from 1945 to 1947.
Bill worked for the L. Bamberger & Co., Newark, N.J. in its training program before returning to Waterville in 1954 as the fourth generation to enter the family hardware business, W. B. Arnold Co. The retail division was closed in 1962, and he was employed by Chase & Sons of Watertown, Massachusetts in the advertising specialty business as State of Maine representative.
On Oct. 8, 1957, he married Joan M. Williams of Augusta in Charlottesville, Va.
He maintained an active relationship with Bowdoin College as a former Class Agent, a two-term chairman of the Alumni Fund, a member of the Alumni Council, and later served on the Board of Overseers for fourteen years. He received the Alumni Service Award in 1967.
An active Republican, Bill was a Kennebec County Commissioner from 1961 to 1972, and was President of the Maine County Commissioners Association. He served one term on the Republican State Committee.
A former President of the Maine Publicity Bureau, as well as the Waterville Area Chamber of Commerce, he also chaired the State of Maine Heart Fund. He was a director of the Portland-based Peoples Heritage Bank (now TD Bank) serving on its Executive Committee. He was also a director of the Waterville Area Industrial Corporation, a trustee of the Waterville Regional Arts and Community Center (WRACC), and had been a member of the Waterville Rotary Club for 56 years.
In 1988 Bill was elected President of the Waterville Historical Society which operates the Redington Museum at 62 Silver Street, a position he held and enjoyed until 2004.
His interests were varied including gardening and landscaping, collecting original Currier and Ives prints, playing and promoting championship six-wicket croquet, managing the Arnold block on Waterville’s Main Street, and promoting the Redington Museum for which he was honored in 2003.
He was predeceased by one son, Willard B. (Andy) Arnold IV. Survivors include his wife Joan; two daughters, Elizabeth M. Arnold of Salem, Mass. and her spouse Janis M. Cotter, Margaret L. Arnold of Beverly, Mass. and her spouse Marisa J. Kelly; his daughter-in-law Jean of San Francisco; one granddaughter, Olivia Lane Arnold, and one grandson, Willard B. (Will) Arnold V; and several cousins.