Edward G. Arntzen

January 22, 1928 - February 7, 2015

Edward G. Arntzen, longtime resident of the Prescott Country Club in Dewey, Arizona passed away peacefully at home at the age of 87, the morning of Feb. 7, 2015, one day after the 11th wedding anniversary of his marriage to Patricia (Nicolai) Arntzen. He was surrounded by his loving family and under the care of Hospice of the Pines. He was preceded in death by his first wife of 53 years, Mary Jean Arntzen, his parents and three sisters. Edward was born in Tucson, Arizona on Jan. 22, 1928, as the fourth child and only son of Julius Leo and Bertha Oak Arntzen. Ed attended elementary school in Tucson and graduated from Tucson Senior High School in 1945. After graduation, Ed volunteered for military service at the age of 17 and entered the United States Navy and served 14 months during World War II. Upon separation from the Navy, Ed enrolled at the University of Arizona where he majored in Agricultural Engineering, graduating in 1950. On Aug. 24, 1950, he married Mary Jean Elliott, a girl he had dated while in college. They lived in West Virginia for a short time and then returned to Tucson where Ed worked for the City of Tucson Engineering Department. Ed volunteered for military service during the Korean War and served aboard the aircraft carrier U.S.S. Princeton. In 1956, Ed enrolled again at the University of Arizona and graduated in 1958 with a Bachelor of Science Degree in Mechanical Engineering. He continued to serve as a Lieutenant in the U.S. Navy Reserve. Ed worked for the University of California at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in Los Alamos, New Mexico for 25 years. He retired in 1990 and moved to the Prescott Country Club in Dewey, Arizona. A major time consuming hobby after retirement was tracing his German heritage and genealogy back multiple generations. During his research, he learned that a distant relative had been the personal physician to Catherine the Great of Russia. He thoroughly enjoyed the beauty of Arizona by hiking and rafting the Grand Canyon. Before Ed's birth, his father served as a physician in the U.S. Army Medical Corps as a Major at Fort Whipple in Prescott, Arizona before it became a VA hospital. Ed continued to feel a contact with his father through his volunteer years at the VA. He later enjoyed volunteer activity at YRMC-East. He is survived by his wife, Patricia; two sons, Michael (Jeannette), Dan (Heidi); and a daughter Julie (Tom) Aiani; and five grandchildren, Christopher, Philip, Mary Anne and Katie Arntzen and Kellie Baldonado. The family wishes to express special thanks to Ed's primary care physician, Dr. N. Sankar of the Dewey Medical Center and to the Hospice of the Pines for the loving concern, comfort and care provided by the entire staff, especially Steve Hones, RN. For those interested in a memorial donation, the family would suggest Hospice of the Pines "Hope and Care Foundation," 13175 E. Highway 169, Suite B, Dewey, AZ 86327. Arrangements were entrusted to Sunrise Funeral Home. Information provided by survivors.