I was saddened to hear about fellow PONCHO Past President and all around wonderful person, Bob Arnold's passing yesterday in the desert. I dug out the remarks I made seven years ago when I was asked to honor him at a special PONCHO Tribute luncheon to share with you.
BOB ARNOLD – PONCHO HONCHO 1976
Bob is modest and doesn’t want to be thought of as “Mr.
Big”, but I told him that he was going to have to let us make him “Mr. Big” for
at least today!
As many of you may know, Bobby grew up as part of the Seattle establishment. His father was the Chairman of Seafirst Bank
and the most successful local fundraising guild for Fred Hutch is named after
his mother, Grace Heffernan Arnold. Bob
is a 5th generation banker. His
brother frequently said that Bob went
into banking because he couldn’t get a job anywhere else. But actually, I have a couple of stories
about two other jobs that Bob did hold.
- When
Bobby was 15 years old, he took a job at a cannery in Alaska.
During more racially intolerant times than today, he accepted an
invitation by a young native Innuit girl to attend a party one night. There was literally a caste or class system
in Alaska
at that time and Native Americans were at the bottom of the social totem
pole. It was reported back to his
supervisor that he was seen at the party with a girl with a different skin
color than his so he was unceremoniously fired the next day. Bob had to sell his watch to get enough
money to buy his ticket to get home.
So in his first job, he was canned by the cannery.
- Some
of you may have noticed that Bob always wears a small gold St. Christopher
medal around his neck that his parents gave him when he was a young man. Five years later in 1949, Bob and his
family were able to have a private audience with the Pope and the Pope
held Bob’s medal and blessed it. Bob’s
next job was in the Navy for four years and he flew as a fighter pilot
during the Korean War. One day on
the carrier, Bob was passed out in his bunk after flying four missions in
a row when he was rousted out and told he needed to fly another
mission. When he checked for his
St. Christopher medal, he realized that it was missing and said he had to
find it before he could fly another mission. Bob subsequently did find his medal
later that afternoon in his bunk, but in the meantime, his bunk mate
offered to take his place in the plane and was shot down and died that
day. Bob has served his fellow man
in so many ways since that day over 50 years ago when he didn’t go on that
fateful mission.
Let’s talk about Bob and PONCHO. PONCHO was originally formed in Bob’s home
following a field trip to see ZOOMZI, an auction supporting the Portland Zoo
and the Museum of Science and Industry in Portland. Bob was part of the original cabal
of six that formed PONCHO along with Kayla Skinner, Ned Skinner, Bobbie Fowler,
Paul Friedlander and Hagen ________.
One of the things Bob told me he valued about PONCHO was
that it gave him the opportunity to associate with people that he didn’t know
well, who were not part of the “establishment” that he grew up within, but
instead were many of the people he described as “doers” who became very dear
friends to him.
Bob was the 12th President of PONCHO in 1976 and
the theme for the Gala Auction, that year was “Happy Birthday America”! The evening’s décor was totally underwritten
and executed by the Bon Marche and installed with volunteer help. The event was held in the Exhibition Hall at
the Seattle Center.
There was a whole section reserved for showcasing the many live animals
that were included in the auction; several horses, dogs, etc. There was a system for bidding on live
auction items that involved a bid signal light with two 4-foot cords located on
each table next to the centerpiece.
Attendees were instructed to press a switch and hold it to activate the
light until the auctioneer recognized their bid before releasing the
switch. They were also reminded in the
program in capital letters to PRESS THE SWITCH ONLY WHEN BIDDING! It is somewhat comforting to realize that
PONCHO patrons didn’t mind then much better than they do now.
In looking at the auction program for 1976, they had 151
live auction and 551 silent auction items.
The first item up for bid was a new kitchen appliance that was
revolutionizing American cooking, an Amana microwave. To give you a taste of some of the other offerings,
there was a Welsh pony valued at $500 and a race horse valued at $6,000, a 33
foot Bayliner boat valued at $48,000, a large painting by Ned Behnke and
tickets for 45 fans to attend a baseball game at the Kingdome with the
brand-new “Seattle Baseball Club” during their inaugural season. The catalog must have gone to print prior to
selection of the name, the Seattle Mariners.
In addition, Bob convinced Georgia Pacific to build a PONCHO dream home
that Bob ruefully admitted didn’t sell during his presidential year, so he
earned the distinction of being the first PONCHO president who brought in less
net revenue than his predecessor the previous year. Of course the house sold shortly after he
passed the gavel, so the next year looked really good.
Though Bob has heard himself pronounced dead several times
already, we are all very glad that the pronouncements were wrong and that he is
here with all of us today. Few people
are as full of life as Bobby Arnold!
Here are just a few of his passions:
- PASSION
#1: Philanthropy – Bob loves to do
things for his community and is very proud of the many institutions he and
his family have supported over the years.
It is not too hard for us to find lots of examples of his legendary
generosity . . . the Arnold Building at the Hutch, the new entry sculpture
in the Seattle
Art Museum. He told me he can’t wait for the new SAM
to open so we can all see the sculpture of nine cars crashing into one
another and flying! Bob says that
PONCHO really gets the credit for educating him to appreciate the arts.
- PASSION
#2: Travel – Bob loves to
travel. He and his very special
friend, Geri Lucks, travel all over the world together. It really helps that Geri is a trained
travel agent! So far, Bob has
traveled to 153 countries and wants to bet that you haven’t traveled to as
many as he. This year, he and Geri
look forward to adding to his list with a visit to Timbukto and Malle. By the way, you can ask Bob to repeat
the “Timbukto” joke privately later.
- PASSION
#3: Fine Wine – When Bob was in his
forties, he and four other Seattleites bought a French winery, Chateau
Bouscaut. For 15 years, he and his
friends, as profitable French vintners, had a wonderful time entertaining
their friends and important guests with their Chateau located on 50 acres
of park land in Bordeaux. There was a tradition amongst the
French Bordeaux winery owners, to trade a case of wine at Christmastime so
he began an amazing wine collection.
And of course, many of you have been in Bob’s home and have seen
his impressive collection of wines in his wine cellar.
- PASSION
#4: Investing in people – Bob is an
active angel investor. He likes to
help people succeed in building their dreams. Amazingly, he has invested in 92
start-up companies. In fact, Bob
was one of Howard Schultz’ first investors and underwrote Howard’s 6 month
education in Italy and Europe to learn the coffee business right before
Howard acquired the Starbuck’s concept and began to build Starbucks to be
a household word.
I have one final funny story about Bob. Many years ago, here at the Sunset Club,
there was pressure that the club would
lose it liquor license if it did not admit men.
Betty McCurdy, who was president of the Sunset Club at that time, asked
Bob if he would agree to run for prospective membership. He agreed and when it came time to vote, his
application was promptly declined by the rest of the membership. What he thought was a favor turned out to be
a personal embarrassment. Well, Bob,
don’t you think it is ironic that your PONCHO Founders Award honor is being
presented today in the club that turned you down all those years ago?
Now it is time to present the award. Bob, please come join me at the podium.
