Viola McCord Arnold

Born 8/24/1924, in Indiana, Viola McCord met Charles Arnold on a bus—he made it look like a chance occurrence—when they were both heading home from different dates while attending college in Champaign-Urbana, Illinois in 1943. They married a year later in 1944. She graduated from the University of Illinois in 1947 and moved with her husband to California.

Viola taught elementary school in Bakersfield and Anaheim before earning her Master’s Degree. They moved to Santa Barbara in 1960 where she taught Special Education for the Santa Barbara School District for over 20 years at Franklin, McKinley and Garfield schools. Many adults in the special needs community here were once “Mrs. Arnold’s” students. She volunteered as president of Alpha Resource Center’s board and remained a supporter of that organization for the rest of her life.

In her spare time, she enjoyed finding treasures at local thrift stores and taking adult education classes, such as woodcarving and calligraphy. After she retired, Vi spent time at her grandson Zac’s elementary school, volunteering in the classroom and sharing regular weekly lunch dates. These were treasured memories for them both. Recently, she took great pleasure seeing granddaughter Nicole take part in the Solstice Parade.

Viola had many friends and family with whom she would correspond over the years. She passed away on 8/5/2011 with family close by. She is survived by her husband and four children David, Diane, Joan, Chris, their spouses and her two grandchildren as well as her extended family back east. She will be much missed. She was well loved.

Instead of flowers or other remembrances, the family would greatly prefer friends make contributions to the Alpha Resource Center (at 4501 Cathedral Oaks Road, Santa Barbara Ca, 93110) in Viola Arnold’s name.