EDITOR’S NOTE: I wrote a personal, heartfelt column four years ago about my good friend Lee Dale “Pete” Arnsman of Hopkins, just after he suffered a debilitating stroke. He hadn’t died, but a part of me felt like he really did. I never saw him again after I received the news from the gang at the Then & Now Historical Library in Dorr.
So when the news came Monday of his passing, it felt like this had happened in 2019. Nevertheless, I want to republish a tribute to a good man who did everything he could for the family, community and school system he loved dearly.
Good Lord, I miss Pete Arnsman.
No, Lee Dale “Pete” Arnsman of Hopkins has not not passed away, but last December he suffered a stroke and has been homebound and struggling since. I am told he does not recognize anyone, except perhaps his son Mel, and he struggles to walk and talk.
He and his wife, Peggy Rose, have lived in downtown Hopkins, not far from the high school, for more than 60 years. Pete married the girl next door and they have been in the thick of life in Hopkins for more than six decades.
Peggy Rose also is facing major health challenges and doesn’t get out much any more. Some may remember her as the Hopkins High School librarian and the girls’ basketball coach who stepped down the year before the Lady Vikings went all the way to the state Class C finals.
But I mourn the loss of a longtime friendship with Pete, whom I chatted with virtually every Wednesday at the Then & Now Historical Library, much to the chagrin of the ladies who want to get things done there. We ganged up on poor Mary Ellen Mynatt DeYoung on political discussions and probably drove everyone else crazy with incessant banter about the Vikings, and from an earlier day, the Blue Devils.
Pete also made a deal every year with me to attend the Hopkins High School Alumni Banquet in June. He’d make certain I was treated to a free potluck meal in exchange for a photo the of the bouquet winner and a write-up about the proceedings.
Pete was seriously a mover and a shaker for the alumni organization, often serving as master of ceremonies. He also was a serious mover and shaker for the Hopkins High School Athletic Hall of Fame and he and Peggy Rose sponsored the Mark Arnsman Memorial Athletic Scholarship.
Pete played football and basketball for the Blue Devils back in the 1950s and he often recounted how he held Wayland’s Phil Regan well below his scoring average in a basketball game by employing questionable defensive practices. The usually mild-mannered Regan, after one game told him, “You’re a dirty player, Arnsman.”
Fast forward to 1972 and the first time I recall writing a story about Hopkins football for the Wayland Globe. Mark “Pete” Arnsman was the star of the game, scoring a lot of TDs and winning honors as Homecoming King. I quipped, as was and is my custom, that he didn’t get around to discovering a cure for cancer.
I wasn’t laughing a few years later when I had to write the tragic story about Mark being killed in an early morning car crash. His parents later established the scholarship to honor him, Hopkins athletes and to help them get over their grief.
Lee Dale has been indispensible to me over the past seven years for his help in getting me information for publishing obituaries. Most of all, he has been a great friend.
Pete and Peggy Rose are two extremely valuable sources for local history. But because of Pete’s condition, it does not appear his gifts to his beloved community will be available again.
When these two Hopkins stalwarts pass on, a lot of precious local history and community service will pass with them. I am glad they still live, but I’m too much of a coward to visit an old friend who probably won’t know who I am.
Good Lord, I miss Pete Arnsman.