George Henry Arnold III's Obituary
The Story of Our Beloved Pop: Mr. George Henry Arnold III
His Beginnings: “Lil George”
While listening to the comforting, sweet, songful voice of his devoted wife of 55 ½ years, our beloved family patriarch, George Henry Arnold III, peacefully passed away as a true soldier battling long-term illnesses, while in the loving arms of our mother, Catherine Elizabeth Arnold, his devoted wife. Our dear father-who in our youth we affectionately first called “Deddy”, and was later renamed our family moniker “Pop” by one of his daughters-was first known as “Lil George” or lovingly also “Kingfish”. He was born as a “Grady Baby” in Atlanta, Georgia on October 5, 1946 to his hard working father, George Henry Arnold, Jr. (“Big Deddy”), who was the personal close chef of Mr. Robert W. Woodruff, president of The Coca-Cola Company and his darling mother, Ruby Lee Williams Arnold (“Big Mama”), who was a compassionate nurse and very well-known Atlanta community pastor and philanthropic leader. An eternal self-described “Mama’s Boy”, our Pop, (a great story teller!) loved sharing stories about how much he adored attending church with her, simply looking into her loving big brown eyes…or just simply follow her everywhere she went just to be in her gentle soft-spoken and powerful presence.
With a warm heart full of fond childhood memories, he also loved talking about how much he loved the beautiful experience of being a spoiled little brother from his two older siblings, his darling sister Rosa Arnold (of Atlanta, GA) and brother Yaquib Khabir (predeceased) and being a proud fierce protector of his three younger siblings Bettye Arnold Gill (of Hamption, GA); Brenda Katrina Arnold (predeceased); Geraldine Broughton (Michael) (of Hampton, GA); and Martin Arnold (of Decatur, GA). He truly loved spending time with his siblings by going with them to the annual Coca-Cola Family Picnics, playing and laughing with them, and simply just tickling them (especially under the chin!) to hear their delightful responsive giggles. He also enjoyed talking about his solo visits to be spoiled at his grandparent’s house, George Henry Arnold, Sr. and Mabel Arnold (both pre-deceased) to eat warm home-made biscuits and receive their sound and sage advice. He also delighted in being “Uncle George” to twenty-five nieces and nephews, and a cherished nephew and cousin to a host of relatives.
While living in the former John Eagan Homes neighborhood in Atlanta, Georgia, during his days attending E.R. Carter Elementary School (K-7), our 10-year old Pop had a seemingly uneventful encounter that truly forever changed his life for one day after school, he saw a pretty 8 year old little brown-skin girl named Catherine who was crying because her bicycle chain was broken. “Lil George” immediately and unselfishly jumped to her aide and fixed her bicycle chain. Unbeknownst to him, this was his very first special encounter with the little girl (who she had actually already secretly noticed due to his beautiful skin color and unique walk!) and he could not get her out of his memory, including while he was a student at Booker T. Washington High School (grades 8-11). In high school, he earned several awards including two very cherished personalized “gold track shoe” medallions that he earned for his fast sprinting
technique as the anchor for the 4 by 400 meter relay, where he was part of the winning City Champs of 1962. During this time, he laughingly loved to tell the story about how he returned home after playing marbles with his friends to see his parents packing up the vehicle to move to his Arnold family new home in the Adamsville neighborhood on the west side of Atlanta. Hence, he then had to transfer his senior year of high school and subsequently then graduated as a member of the first graduating class at the new Harper High School in 1964.
After graduation, Pop enlisted in the United States Air Force on August 10, 1964 serving in various assignments throughout a distinguished 21-year service career until his Honorable Discharge-Disabled American Veteran, retiring on May 31, 1986 as a Vehicle Maintenance Superintendent with a rank of Senior Master Sergeant. He earned several prestigious awards during his military service, including the Vietnam Service Medal, National Defense Service Medal, and Air Force Longevity Service Award Ribbon.
His Family: Our “Pop”
But prior to his graduation, he blissfully became reacquainted with the same pretty little brown-skin crying girl, Catherine Elizabeth Broughton-whose bicycle chain he had fixed years earlier!-and from there, their 55 ½ year romantic marriage began on November 2, 1964. From this beautiful union he earned his most favorite names and first became “Deddy”, and subsequently “Pop” to his cherished 4 children: Tasha Arnold (of Key West, Florida); George Henry Arnold IV (of Killeen, Texas); Cynara Arnold Cross (of Miami, Florida); Keisha Arnold Johnson (of Miami, Florida). Oh how Pop loved being The Arnold Family 6 Patriarch and was beyond proud of being a youthful, protective, affectionate, and generous parent. He raised us children with an incredibly exceptional parenting style that was a splendid combination of providing witty sage life lessons, mixed with showing a caring and loving manner… with a strong emphasis on rearing us children with obedience, discipline, and structure. Within our very organized household, with his very strong-willed character, Pop indeed ran a tight military style camp house-all in the name of love-our Pop did not tolerate disrespect towards adults whatsoever. And after a stern Pop talk, if we ever behaved with a “disrespectful tail”, he would then make that unique clearing throat sound..,then do his remarkably unique laugh..,and then go tell us to grab a jar of grease and the rubber bands and bows so he could comb our hair himself! Hence, he would discipline us and then show love. No matter what, he was always adamant that we all kept ourselves looking our impeccably best.
As a very involved parent, Pop encouraged us kids to do our best and set the tone for bringing positive lasting benefits into our family by always first considering “The Arnold Kids” best interests. For example, he would even pre-visit our schools before allowing enrollment to ensure that the school met our academic needs. He would truly give us undivided attention to understand our perspective. For example, he would negotiate allowances to help teach proper budget planning- but he was always generous, even if we did not adhere to his rules. By working with his beloved Catherine, he taught us children to respect our mother, “Mama”, by daily showing us how much he respected and needed her first. Pop instilled an atmosphere of warmth
within our household as he involved us in everything he liked to do including singing along to a room full of playing music on his turntable with his favorite 33 and 45 RPM records with artists such as The Temptations, The Stylistics, and The Chi-lites. As The Arnold Family Patriarch, he provided the necessities and “extra specials” that are truly rare of a loving home with unified parents who consistently gave love, security, and attention.
Very importantly, as “Senior Master Sergeant Arnold”, Pop’s U.S. Air Force career shaped our family’s life as he was pleased that it enabled his children to be well-traveled as he was stationed on various bases and moved us unified “Arnold 6” to beautiful locations including Washington, South Dakota, Japan, Guam, Alaska, California, and Florida to name a few. Pop made the frequent family moves a fun family experience and one of his favorite highlights of “The Arnold 6” was driving in the road in a large family camper from California to Alaska. He also solo served various duty assignments and lived and worked in exotic locations such as Greenland, Thailand, the Philippines, Korea, and Puerto Rico. Importantly, he honorably and proudly served in the Vietnam War. Academically, he held a Bachelor of Arts degree in Business Administration/Computer Information System track and an Associate degree in Automotive Maintenance, which he earned concurrent while still fulfilling his military service.
His Everything: “GeoCat”
Even more importantly, is that Pop was able to simultaneously have an outstanding military career and family life due to the unwavering support of our beloved Mama who we dutifully watched support him by moving every two years from base to base to relocate in support of his military career assignments. Mama respectfully gave up many of her own interests and career choices to self-sacrifice and honor Pop’s wishes to take care of our family as the quintessential outstanding homemaker and he wanted her to take care of us children-which she did immaculately-so he could take care of the family working hard, including various second jobs. His sound financial advice was powerful and if you were ever the recipient to hear the advice he received from his own father, which Pop named “The Big Deddy Talk”, he would tell you for hours the exact way his own father taught him of how to successfully manage a household as a couple.
Pop’s career working…was her career too-and they were intertwined whereby we began to affectionally call them one name “GeoCat” as George+Catherine. As a devout Jehovah’s Witness for over 50 years, we grew up knowing our Mama is truly the epitome of honoring Ephesians 5:22-23, “Let wives be in subjection to their husbands as to the Lord…because a husband is head of the congregation, he being a savior of this body.” With Mama’s devotion to “her Sugar”, we grew up with them side by side. Pop’s legacy is all about our Mama. He was her fierce protector and he loved talking about his love for his wife. As a parent, Pop loved the meals Mama prepared and they made sure we were at the dining table sitting together every night for dinner. He also cherished and personally planned our monthly Friday night Arnold 6 Family Date Nights (oh how he loved fine dining at the Tea Room in Anchorage, Alaska!). From his experience in the military Air Force maintenance field, he was an expert in everything that had to
do with vehicles, and he loved tinkering with the family cars-we all grew up benefitting from his knowledge.
Pop was an exemplary man who ran his household and worked hard, yet still took the time out for us by taking us to activities and accompanying us to various school events. We honored him by running to greet him after work as he entered the door where we would take off his socks daily. We honored him by doing our academic lessons before we played. We also enjoyed watching him play recreational football and he delighted in telling detailed stories about his prowess on the gridiron as either a safety or a wide receiver and he was affectionally known by his teammates as “Spiderman”. The biggest highlight of our family activities was watching him sing either solo or as a lead singer in various Temptations style singing groups in base talent shows during his time while in the Air Force. Pop had a beautiful tenor voice with a great upper range that he could seamlessly and easily transition into falsetto which would excite the large crowds as he performed in vocal groups with creative names such as “The Spidells” and “The Tra Vels”. We grew up feeling he was akin to a celebrity as he earned several trophies for singing which adorned our home during this time, including the elite Rogers award, presented to the best performer who was in the ranks to be selected into the premier Air Force Tops in Blue, which was an exclusive entertainment touring performance ensemble made up of active duty members of the United States Air Force. Our family was so proud to watch him as a vocalist in every one of those base talent shows which was like attending The Grammys and American Music Awards all rolled into one.
What a beautiful feeling our family has that in his older years, Pop knew how much we appreciated our parents, as for GeoCat’s 50th wedding anniversary in 2014, we held an “Arnold 6” weekend to celebrate them with all of the activities Pop enjoyed the most-which was simply to just be around his family and hear us talk. We were able to re-enact our old Arnold Family Date Nights by dressing up in black tie and gowns to dine out, hiring a private photographer for Pop to enjoy the pictures of the night, allowed him to have a special surprise presentation to spoil his Catherine, shower him with meaningful gifts of expression, and recount years of amazing family stories during a weekend sleepover-just like when we were still little. He loved our demonstration of appreciation and respect and we are forever grateful we had him as our Pop.
His Legacy: “Poppy”
Pop would proudly tell you that the best part of his beautiful love story with his Catherine was carrying on his legacy by him being a proud grandparent to his cherished 13 grandchildren whom he deeply loved: Autumn Arnold, Morria Arnold, Bria Arnold, Aaron Hollowell, Arielle Kililis (Troy), Tiera Cross, Sidney Hollowell, Nadia Johnson, Adah Arnold, Anthony Cross Jr., Bria Harris, William Hollowell, and Malik Johnson.
There was never a moment in our lives where we doubted his commitment to raising us or the dedication he felt towards us in his heart. Soothing us to sleep as babies when we got tired…sitting us as little ones in his lap to massage our scalps…teaching us about love and money and relationships as we aged…sending “Poppy Pizza Money” to support us being away in
college…and giving away his very own suits and ties to his grandsons when we did not have any (and you all KNOW how sharp one of Pop’s suits is!).
No matter how far away we were or how much time passed between our meetings, he went above and beyond to show us love and kindness in any way that he possibly could. No matter what the issue was, he had our backs from our very first days to his very last days. Because that’s the kind of man Pop was; endlessly generous. Even after his health left him, he still got up tired and drained after dialysis to come see his granddaughter the night of her wedding. Through the good and the bad, he was our heart and soul. When he retired for a second time from Broward County, many of us had so much fun honoring him with a personalized retirement show that included re-enactments of his life including how he met our Granny (the infamous bicycle chain story) and doing a group vocal song copying how he use to perform. We had so much fun with our Pop!
And do not let his grandfatherly ways fool ya; Pop had SOUL for sure. We have so many stories about what a character Pop was (He kind of had to be, with all us wild kids running around). This man would roll around on the floor singing in his veeeeeeeery highest voice with us just to make us laugh one second and then sit us down for a “Poppy talk” without skipping a beat. He loved sharing with us his infamous marriage financial planning talk, “The Big Deddy Talk”, and we value and cherish having received his wisdom.
Pop touched each grandchild in a different and special way and for one dear granddaughter, for her…he was her father. As his namesake, he would always say to her “stand over there and let me just look at you pretty girl”.
You see, we had more than just a grandfather in Pop. We had a friend, a father, and a mentor that guided us through life with a warm smile and a hug whenever we walked through his door. We loved our Pop dearly. And we’re going to miss him.
He was proud to continue his legacy to be a great-grandparent of six and was able to enjoy time with many of them as well.
His 2nd Work Career: “Mr. Arnold”
After retiring from his military career in 1986 in south Florida, our Pop immediately went on to work in his second career working for Broward County as the FLEET Maintenance Superintendent working a full second career where he was responsible for maintaining over 1200 general purpose vehicles operating in excess of 11.5 million miles per year and 1100 special purpose vehicles operating over 1.5 million hours per year. He had many accolades during this time including as an instructional designer where he assisted in the development of several key exams for potential employees and as an instructor teaching courses for the County’s computer system. While Pop humbly did not like extra attention, at times he did appreciate being recognized and while working was featured on the November 1996 cover of the Public Works magazine. Also, he was featured prominently on a beautifully hand drawn colored mural featured on the side of a building in Broward County. He worked in this position for 22 years until his second retirement from the workforce in 2008.
His Faith: “Brother Arnold”
Pop was baptized as a Jehovah’s Witness in June of 1990. As Brother Arnold, Pop served very faithfully as an Elder for many years and was able to help and encourage many. Oh how he loved talking about the Final Days and being prepared for the New World to all that would listen, including as a citizen volunteer assisting the Florida Department of Corrections by making weekly prison bible study visits. Pop truly enjoyed preaching to others about Jehovah’s Kingdom. He loved attending weekly meetings, preparing for and giving talks at the Kingdom Hall, and going out in field service accompanied with our dear Mama and his spiritual brothers and sisters. He also loved going on www.jw.org and loved watching and sharing Jehovah’s Witness videos to share The Truth with others with enthusiasm and devoutness. He enjoyed spending the mornings with his Catherine by reading his bible, the New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures and going over Examining the Scriptures Daily; what a beautiful way he began each morning with her.
Pop also enjoyed spending time doing ministerial work and writing letters to a multitude of spiritual friends all over the world. He was appreciative of their hospitality time and fun gatherings. One of his most fun occasions with the friends was while celebrating a group wedding anniversary (earmarking his 54th with his Catherine); using his walker for support, what a joyous time he had dancing with all present and there was not a dry eye left in the room when he sang in front of his friends to his Catherine after she shared with all their romantic bicycle story meeting. Above all, he loved his heavenly Father Jehovah God and his son Jesus Christ and dedicated the rest of his life to spreading the Good News of the Kingdom.
Finally… “Pop”
If you knew our Pop…you likely warmly also started calling him Pop as well, as just a few moments in his presence would reveal that he was truly a special person who loved helping others by not only sharing wise fatherly advice to all, but also by being generous to offer help to so many people in multiple ways.
Pop loved to share stories throughout his life, so in this spirit, we openly share this: As a result of being exposed to the chemical compound Agent Orange that was used during the Vietnam War, Pop began to face a multitude of illnesses related to this well-documented detrimental exposure as early as the late 1970s, when he survived cancer for the first time. He also successfully beat cancer again in the 2000’s; hence, he was a 2-time cancer survivor. He battled hard with the complications of enduring several heart attacks, kidney failure from years of difficult-to- control high blood pressure, which eventually caused his kidneys to fail resulting in dialysis three times a week; diabetes, and multiple strokes, which ultimately left our Pop with increasingly limited mobility the last few years—all complicated with an unexplained hearing loss.
While these health issues indeed affected his quality of life-when he was able, he still completed multiple tasks including working on his duties as an Elder, spending time with his
devoted wife, enjoying visits from our family, sending texts messages to family and friends after his hearing impaired and he could no longer communicate via telephone, handwriting one of his beautiful long detailed letters, and most importantly, continuing to preach about Jehovah God. During these moments, George epitomized what his Catherine said to “always find hope in changed circumstances”.
Our dear Mama was truly his “EVERYTHING” and she was very supportive throughout his illnesses as our beloved Pop expressed that he wanted what he wanted when he wanted it and was adamant that she be his sole caregiver. He recently lovingly told her “…you take good care of me”. She worked tirelessly, and we commend her for demonstrating what it truly means to be by one’s side in not only good health, but truly during their sickness. Our family is very thankful for several very special spiritual friends who assisted with Pop’s care during his last extremely difficult months as his health continued to decline. What a blessing for our family that he did not have to endure the suffering of more illness as so many people are during this unprecedented time in our world; he did not have COVID-19. A true soldier during his final moments, Pop truly fought for hours until he succumbed to end stage renal failure on May 1, 2020. We are grateful that several of us family members-including his children and grandchildren- were able to have seen him during his final hours to personally and privately express our love to him, including the most incredible closing of his incredible life and love story as follows:
“After 64 years from their first seemingly uneventful encounter, the pretty little brown-skin crying girl…who he had protected and took care of from day 1 by coming to her rescue and fixing her bicycle chain…held his hands tightly as his earthly body began to slip away. After continuing his health fight for several hours after his children and several grandchildren had one by one… by one… said their last personalized goodbyes to him, the room was now just filled with his pretty little brown-skin girl along with his beloved daughter Cynara and her loving daughter Morria-his granddaughter who he personally named and saw be born to take her first breathe were present as she saw him taking his lasts…His nurse granddaughter personally comforted him with dignity, respect, and love during these precious final breathes…As the pretty little brown-skin girl-George’s Catherine-…with music playing, held and rubbed her left hand across his cheeks and held his hand in her right…she began to sing to her husband a precious and meaningful song…the sweet sound of her melodic voice soothed him as he truly KNEW they were each other’s EVERYTHING… right as the music stopped…he beautifully took his final last breathe…knowing they were truly blessed the day they found each other… peacefully passing away in his wife’s loving hands and arms…with the hope of Resurrection to Life on Earth”.
“End of Story”
Pop, We Will Always Love You!
Written by Keisha Arnold Johnson on behalf of The Arnold 6 Family
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