David Arnold

1950 - 2015

David C. Arnold

January 25, 1950 - April 11, 2015

Born January 25, 1950 in Sacramento, California, David Arnold died peacefully at his home in San Francisco on April 11, 2015. He is survived by his wife, Sara Arnold, and by his brother and sister-in-law, Michael and Sandy Arnold of Vallejo.
David met Sara shortly after she'd retired from American Ballet Theatre in NY and it was nearly love at first sight. They were perfectly complementary and were married a year later. They began their life together with the common love of rugged adventure and eagerness for new experiences: mountain biking on Mt. Tam, exploring the east side of the Sierras and Nevada desert, sailing, and settled in their apartment with an expansive view of the Marin Headlands, Golden Gate Bridge and Farallones. David kept binoculars handy to report sailboats outside the Gate struggling against the outgoing tide.
David spent most of his professional life at America Printing as an account executive where he counted himself lucky to meet his many wonderful clients who became lifelong friends and to find a sense of success, accomplishment and pride in his contribution to the company where he worked for over 20 years.
But the real story of David's life can be found in his passions. He'd always had a jones for speed--bicycle racing and motorcycles--but finally realized his life-long dream to drive race cars-'66 Shelby Mustang, Lotus 7, Datsun 510's, and Miatas and gloried in racing through the infamous corkscrew turn at Laguna Seca in SCCA and Vintage motorsports events. Here he found an outlet for his love of speed, zen-like focus of racing, fearlessness, car mechanics and acerbic witty banter at the race track.
David loved all things mechanical and took joy in fixing things from a neighbor's old wheelchair, to Sara's bridesmaid's broken shoe so she could walk down the aisle, to the fallen branch found in Golden Gate Park that he sanded and burnished creating his own handsome walking stick. He relished his gun collection for its mechanical elegance and sculpted beauty and honed his skill shooting skeet.
David's greatest passion was people. He loved to converse, was interested and interesting, listening was education for him and talking a way to make sense of his own stories. He loved creating connections. He would say "there's somebody you've got to meet" and new friendships and unlikely alliances were formed. He could not walk down Columbus Avenue without greeting restaurant owners and the lady who sold him his daily newspaper, or work on cars in the driveway without greeting every neighbor and dog by name.
Perhaps the most pivotal event since his marriage was reuniting with his brother Michael from whom he'd been estranged for over 30 years. On a chance visit to the Hiller Aviation Museum, an elegant hand built airplane called the AR-5 caught his eye. Upon inspection, he saw it had been designed and built by his brother Michael Arnold. When the two finally met, they discovered they spoke the same language of airplanes, machines, mechanics and of course family. Time spent with his brother in the final phase of his life brought healing and closure for them both and in sense made his life complete.
David lived and loved with passion, whether finding a new alley in the SF Mission or looking for alkali hot springs in the Nevada desert. "Let's go someplace and be somebody" he would say to Sara at the start of a new day. David really was somebody -- somebody very special and very well loved.