BOB ARNOLD

SHELDON- Services with military honors will be held at 11 a.m. Thursday at Ferry Funeral Home, 301 South Washington, Nevada, for Bob Arnold, 87, who died Sunday, March 8, 2020, in Nevada, Mo. Visitation will be held prior to the service, beginning at 10 a.m.

In lieu of flowers, memorial donations may be made to the Nevada United Methodist Church and the Wounded Warrior Project.

The obituary may be viewed and condolences left online at www.ferryfuneralhome.com.

Survivors include his wife of 64 years, Joann; his daughters, Bobette Messick and husband Dan, Lori Pearce and husband Dan and Deanna Yokley and husband Mike; seven grandchildren, Eli Yokley, Mandy Messick, Tanner Yokley, Abbey Messick, Gabe Yokley, Jaimie Pearce and Blake Messick and a sister, Sue Logan, Harrisonville.

Mr. Arnold was born Nov. 26, 1932, in Lamar, to Hugh and Helen Arnold, just a few minutes after his twin brother Jack. The two were raised in Sheldon, where they both graduated high school in 1950. The two joined the United States Air Force two years later. They were a package deal for the military, serving together with stents in Texas, California, Florida and Alaska. From Alaska, Bob began his courtship of Joann Lightner with a series of letters. They were married July 31, 1955, at the Sheldon United Methodist Church.

He earned a bachelor of science in education degree from Southwest Missouri State College in Springfield in 1959 and began a 37 year career in public schools that same year. In Sheldon and Hume he coached basketball and other sports and taught social studies and biology. He became a school administrator in Hughesville, where he also coached basketball teams as they went to state championships. In Belton, he worked as a principal while collecting a master of science degree from Kansas State College in Pittsburg in 1967 and a specialist degree from Central Missouri State University in 1973.

In 1975 he took his first job as a superintendent in De Kalb. Five years later he became superintendent in Jasper, where he led the school district for 13 years before retiring in 1993.

Throughout all of this he and his wife Joann raised three daughters, building a family that along with the families they would raise, became the focus of his life in retirement while he enjoyed golf, took up real estate and embarked on road trips, including annual winter visits to Florida with his brother Jack and later Texas.

He was a boy from Sheldon, a military policeman in the U.S. Air Force, an educator and coach in Missouri public schools, a golfer and a proud husband, father and grandfather.