He was born in New London, Minnesota, on December 22, 1938. Arlen grew up in the small South Dakota town of Frankfort. A gifted athlete, Arlen played and excelled in basketball, track and baseball. He was the valedictorian of his 1956 graduating class of five. Arlen often joked that he was in both the top five, and bottom five, of his class.
Upon graduation, Arlen enlisted in the Air Force and after basic training ended up at Lowry Air Force Base in Denver. Arlen had a knack for electronics and soon became an instructor in the field. It was in Denver, at a basketball game, that Arlen met his future wife Joan, a student at Colorado Women’s College. After her graduation, Arlen and Joan were married in her hometown of Kemmerer, Wyoming, on September 16, 1961, and returned to Denver to begin their life together.
Upon completion of his Air Force service, Arlen worked for Martin Marietta Corporation assembling intercontinental ballistic missiles. Arlen and Joan welcomed their first child, Kathryn, in July of 1962.
In 1964, Arlen found a job with a small upstart company with just a handful of employees working out of a Quonset Hut in Loveland. That upstart company was Hewlett Packard. Arlen retired from HP 35 years to the day from the date he started. With the new job came a new place to live, and in Campion, Colorado the family added a new addition in 1965: a son, Michael.
Arlen was an active participant in his children’s lives, whether it was coaching their team in sports, chauffeuring them around to various events or just playing a game of H-O-R-S-E on the driveway.
From the time he was small, sports played a significant role in Arlen’s life, and no matter what the sport, he wanted to be the best and he wanted to win, even if it was just at checkers. A fierce competitor, he wanted to keep track of all the games he played, and during one road trip to compete in the Huntsman Games in Utah, Arlen played cribbage with a teammate in the back seat the entire round trip. Even if he lost a game, he would always challenge you to another for "grand champion."
In addition to playing city league basketball into his fifties, Arlen was a well respected competitive softball player, playing in both fastpitch and slowpitch leagues. He was a well known power hitter and put many a softball beyond the outfield fence. He traveled throughout the US and Canada to participate in tournaments. In 1993, Arlen had the honor to become the first male inductee into the Colorado USSSA Softball Hall of Fame. He played softball until he was 77, and most of his later years were played within the Scrap Iron group of teams. In 2008, Arlen was inducted into the Scrap Iron Hall of Fame.
About the only thing Arlen loved more than sports, but not as much as Joan, was fishing. He loved to get up at the crack of dawn to meet friends and head off to fish Wyoming lakes and rivers. He was a true renaissance man. He mastered the art of painting beautiful landscapes in both oil and watercolor. He could fix and make anything. He loved working out in his yard and especially tending to his vegetable garden, often giving his neighbors fresh tomatoes, cucumbers, beans, and other delights. He enjoyed making homemade crafts and holiday decorations to gift to neighbors and friends. He made his daughter a beautiful black lab rocking lab (think rocking horse) after just seeing one in an Eddie Bauer catalog.
In 1999, Arlen and Joan built their dream house near Mariana Butte golf course. It didn’t take long for him to befriend all the neighborhood dogs and children. They loved to travel in their retirement years, from Walt Disney World to Yellowstone, to visiting their son Mike and his wife Lauren in Arizona, to Europe with their daughter or to the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown.
In 2021, Arlen and Joan celebrated 60 years of marriage, still one another’s best friend. After Joan passed in 2021, Arlen spent the majority of his time with his daughter with whom he was forced to share her love of hockey. She would often quiz him on the spurt of the moment to name the Original Six.
Over the course of their lifetimes, Arlen and Joan were grandparents to their beloved grand dogs Murphy, Nellie, MoDo, Tessa, Lappy and Jewell, godparents to Hayden, Rian and Jesse Thomas, and close friends with many of their neighbors.
A Celebration of Life will be held at Arlen's Home in Loveland on Sunday, June 7th, 2024 from 1:00 PM to 4:00 PM. In lieu of flowers, please bring a Teddy Bear in Arlen's honor to donate for the annual Colorado Eagles Teddy Bear Toss, an event which supports underserved children in Northern Colorado during the holidays, and one that Arlen looked forward to every year. Memories and condolences are welcome at resthavencolorado.com.
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