65 HS1-834228961 62-HQ-83894 Section 002

• J SOME LIFi 1
DATA ON KENNETH ARN
I was born Uarch 29. 1915 in-Subeka. l'innesota . l,~y father's nru::ie was
Ed,m.rd Erb Arnold; my mother ' s maiden name was Bertha E . Barden. I we.s a
resident of Minnesota until I was six years old whon my family moved to
Scobey, Uontana, where they homesteaded. My r,randfather. Ro land c. Arnold
also homesteaded in Scobey, l 1ontana, and became quite prominent in political
circles along with Burton K. Wheeler. the famous !lontana senator.
I went to grade school and high school at Minot, }forth Dakota . I
entered scouting at twelve years of age and achieved the rank of Eagle scout
be.fore I was fourteen . My former scout executive was H. R. Prescott, now a
regional commissioner for the Boy Scouts in Kansas City, Kansas.
As a boy, I was interested in athletics and was selected as an all
state end in 1932 and 1 933 in the state of North Dakota. I entered the
u. S. Olympic trials in fan cy diving in 1932; I was a Red Cross Li fe Saving
Examiner during the years of 1932, 1 33 and '34. I taught swimming and diving
at scout camps and the municipal pool in lli not , north Dakota . I went to the
University of llinnesotu, where I swam and did f ancy diving under Neils Thorpe,
and also pl ayed football under Bernie Bierman, but upon entering coll ege I
1'9.S unable to continue ny football career because of an injured knee . 1~y
high school football coach was Glenn L. Jarrett, who is now the head football
coach of the University of North Dakota . I had littl e or no finances. and
my ambition in furthering my edi cation in college was through my·athletics.
As a boy in Hinot, North Dakota, I did a good deal of dog sled racing , placed
first with 11\Y dog in 1930 in the Lions Club Dog Derby.
In 1938 I went to work for Red Comet, Inc. of Littleton, Col orado, a
manufaoturer of automatic fire fi ghting apparatus. In 1939 I was made
district manager for them over a part of the western states, and in 1940 I
established my own fire control supply known as the Great \Yestern Fire
C6ntrol Supply. I have been working as an independent fire control engineer
since, and I handle, distribute, sell and install all types of automat i c and
manual fi re fighting equipment in the rural areas over five western states.
!Jy flying experience started as a boy in Uinot. North Dakota, where
I took 11\Y first flying lesson from Earl T. Vance, who was originally from
Great Fal l s , llontana. Due to the high cost at t hat time , I was unable to
oontinue m.y flying and did not f ly of any great consequence until 1943.
I was given my pi l ot certificate by Ed Leach, a senior CAA inspector of
Portland, Oregon, and for the last three years have owned my own airpl ane
covering my entire territory with same and flying from ~or ty to one hundred
hours per month since . Due to the fact that I use an airplane entirely in
my work, in January of this year I purchased a new Callair airplane, which
is an airplane designed for high altitude take-offs and short rough field use .
In the type or flying I do , it t akes a great deal of practice and
judgment to be able to land in most any cow pasture and get out without
injuring your airplane; the runways are very limited and the altitude is
very high in some of the fields and places I have to go in my work . To
date, I have landed in 823 cow pastures in mountain meadows, and in over
a thousand hours a flat tire has been my greatest mishap .
B r:" r~· :I:;coNFI Ld. .J. .1.. ~