Steven Frederick Arnold
The world lost one of the most dedicated fathers and most true of friends when Steven Arnold died at the age of 62, when he passed away due to complications of diabetes on December 12th, 2019 in Orlando, Florida.
Born March 26, 1957, Steven spent his early years in and around Lincoln, Rhode Island’s Chapel Street community where Arnold family members had lived for hundreds of years. Steve made the winter fun by racing his sleds down the hills behind the Arnold Bakery or building forts and having snowball fights at his beloved Great Aunt Mary and Aunt Helen’s house.
Steve’s lifestyle changed to shorts and no shoes when divorce relocated him and his brother Milton and sister Carol from New England to St. Petersburg, Florida with their mother, Joan (McLeod) Arnold in 1965. Steve went to elementary and middle school in Pinellas Park and spent summers swimming in the gulf waters of St. Pete Beach and playing baseball games on 28th Avenue South. He attended high school in Orlando when his mother Joan Arnold remarried and relocated the family there. He graduated from Edgewater High School in Orlando’s College Park, Class of 1975.
Like many middle-born children, Steve was easily ready to be both the entertainer and the rebel — and almost always one with a cause. He stood up for those who needed protecting, for justice, and for freedom. He quickly made friends, many of them were for life.
After high school, a lifetime of hard work followed, primarily in Winter Park and Orlando. Steve always gave all he could to each career he entered. After years in restaurant management, Steve was able to follow his love of photography into his vocation when he managed dark room laboratories including the popular custom coloring of children and family portraits. Steve continued his study of photography at Valencia College and later as a passion throughout his life. In the decade prior to his retirement he worked as a sales and customer service manager in the flooring industry.
Steve Arnold was most honored in his life to be Dad to daughters Dione and Brittany. He dedicated his life to giving them encouragement, love, support, and protection. His heart was filled and then began bursting at the seams with even more love when “His Girls” grew up and began families of their own. His daughters and five grandchildren are his legacy and his grandchildren will grow up hearing stories of how their “Pie” dedicated his last years to be part of their lives: Steve Arnold’s grandchildren by order of their birth are: Thea and Anisten Shulman; and Eli, Weston, and Maverick McGray.
Steve was preceded in death by his mother, Joan (McLeod) Murrell; his father, Milton Earle Arnold; his grandparents; and many aunts, uncles and great aunts and uncles.
He is survived by his daughters, Brittany Amber Arnold and Dione Christian McGray; his grandchildren and their fathers, Tyler Shulman and Brandon McGray; his brother Milton Arnold and sister Carol Tanner; his niece Sharon Arnold and nephew Emory Barfield. He is also survived by Uncle Fred and Aunt Elizabeth Arnold; Aunt Mary Hogue; Aunt Carole McLeod and 18 cousins. He loved his in-laws Corrine Jordan and Robert Tanner very much, as well as his extended adopted family that included many friends and additional relatives.