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Missing James Ernest Arbuckle, Mr. Alpena

A couple of weeks ago, Alpena lost a pioneer, a man who loved Alpena and its citizens. James Arbuckle was a man, a northern Michigan man, who loved living in an untapped paradise, Alpena, where friendships are for real, and everybody is each other’s friend. Jimmy was a friend of mine, a special guy, that he was going to do something, it would be done the correct way.

Jim Arbuckle and Uncle Gare go back a pile of years. We go back to the early 40s, when we were kids. My Gramma Mary and Grampa Leo Kendziorski lived but a few doors away. My mother, who brother Neil and me, many a day, would walk over from 234 Tawas St. to 711 8th Ave., she to visit her mom and Neil and Gary to find some guys and play baseball in the streets. If a car came by, we would let them pass or continue to play ball and send them on another way. Guys like Jim Joe Couture, Jimmy Bromund, Jerry and Tom Behning, Dick Higgs, Jimmy Arbuckle, and so many others, enjoyed competing against each other, whether it was softwall, football, or whatever was on the menu.

Jim gave back to the community, and when the hockey team needed a coach, he got some skates, learned to skate, and the kids were flying down the ice. He served and played in the Alpena Civic Orchestra, he was a member of the Besser Male Chorus for 25 years, and served on many committees as a worker-volunteer. He knew the value of education, was president of the Alpena school board, and I could spend hours telling of what Jim Arbuckle did for Alpena.

Jim Arbuckle, never to be forgotten, ALWAYS to be remembered.

James Ernest Arbuckle, Mr. Alpena.

GARY MISCHLEY,

Alpena

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