Arnold C Friedman

Arnold Campbell Friedman, of Bradenton, FL, whose e-mail name was Arniebaby to hundreds of daily correspondents, once wrote “Birthdays are good for you. The more you have, the longer you live.” That philosophy served him well, until August 6, 2018 when he died peacefully at the age of 92.

Arnold was born in Hartford, CT to Pearl Reffkin Friedman and Harry E. Friedman, the third child in a family of four children. He had three sisters, Ruth Friedman Gerber, Shirley Friedman Roffman (deceased) and Sandra Friedman Wolf (deceased), all of New Jersey. He lived in Ct., RI where he spent many summers growing up in an extended family compound in Nausauket, RI, then New York and New Jersey, where he graduated from Rutgers Law School. He had served in the Army Air Corps in World War II, manning a radio station in the jungles of Panama.

It was in N.J. where he met and married Sally Kopelamn Friedman, his wife of 68 years. They had three children; Andrew M. Friedman, a Wordsmith and real estate agent in Seattle, WA and Palm Springs, CA, Amy L. Feldman, Pediatric Nurse Practitioner and Lactation consultant, who resides in Lakewood Ranch with her husband Cliff, and Peter J. Friedman, a documentary filmmaker who resides in Paris, France. Amy and Cliff are the parents of two beloved grandchildren, Jared Feldman, founder and CEO of Canvs, a social media analytics company, and Michelle Feldman, a marketing manager at Verizon Corporation.

Arnold and his wife moved to Perico Bay Club in Bradenton, FL 25 years ago. Arnold retired from his single practitioner law practice of 41 years in NJ just prior to moving to FL.

Once here, he pursued his favorite hobbies of fishing, magic, poker, golf and sharing humorous writings.

He was known in Perico as a ‘lend-a-grandpa” since a lot of neighbors called on him whenever their grandchildren visited so that he could take them fishing. He got his greatest thrill when he could videotape a youngster bringing in a catch so that the youngster could take the video home to show his buddies.

He love of magic spilled over to the children as well, as he taught them many basic tricks. He was an active member of the International Brotherhood of Magicians, Sarasota branch, and he enjoyed many years of e-mailing jokes to friends, prefaced with bits of homespun and humorous philosophies starting with: “Arniebaby wants you to know that….”

Some of his favorite personal memories included the joys of being a grandfather, a travel trailer trip across the U.S. with his three young children, scuba diving at the Great Barrier Reef in Australia, fighting a bull in the Canary Islands, parasailing in Israel, climbing the Great Wall in China, and dancing with a class of pre-schoolers in an open-air classroom in Thailand. He will be missed by many who loved him and his sense of adventure and his warm sense of humor.

Surviving him are his wife of 68 years, Sally Friedman, sons Andrew and Peter (JF Brunet) daughter and son-in-law Amy and Cliff Feldman, grandchildren Jared Feldman and Michelle Feldman (Jess Olszewski).

Services will be at 12:00 P.M. Friday, Aug. 10 at Robert Toale and Sons Funeral Home Wiegand Chapel, 7454 S. Tamiami Trail, Sarasota, FL with interment following at Sarasota National Cemetery.