David Arnold

April 6, 1933 - December 26, 2017

David Arnold was born on April 6, 1933 to Arnold Perstein and Janet Epstein Sinaiko. He spent his early years in Lafayette, CA before moving with his mother to New York. He attended the Bronx High School of Science and Oberlin College, where he majored in history.

He is survived by his wife, Sandra Gutcher, son, David Alexander Arnold, and daughter-in-law Gillian Mohney, brother, Paul Arnold (Jean) and nephew and niece, Jeff Arnold (Laura) and Kimberly Arnold.

David started his career in the armed services mastering Mandarin at the Army Language School in Monterey. After graduating, he spent two years at the National Security Agency.

He returned to the Bay Area to attend the San Francisco Art Institute and became a stained glass artist. During his career, he won a Tiffany Award for one of his windows and had public and private commissions, including one in the San Francisco Ferry Building and in the Hilton Hotel. Though he stopped creating stained glass pieces in his later years, he continued to draw and paint watercolors.

While working as an artist, he also became a property owner and later a real estate investor. In recent years, he continued to invest in the stock market to “keep some skin in the game.”

Throughout his life, David loved the outdoors and even worked as a whitewater rafting guide. He loved finding a way to bring nature into urban areas by designing and creating gardens. A decades-long passion for physical fitness stayed with him to the end: he never missed an opportunity to go to the gym. But, his interest in health and fitness never curbed his love of ice cream.

He was a member of The Best Self Group of Berkeley, Berkeley Property Owners Association, American Horticultural Society, Audubon Society, American Atheists, and MENSA. David had a lifelong passion for folk music, Mozart, Gilbert and Sullivan musicals and Johnny Cash.

If you wish, you may make a donation in David’s memory to the ACLU.