Bob Arnold Remembered
 | | P. Fred Storti, MESPA Executive Director |
December 2009 --
Report from MESPA Executive Director P. Fred Storti
"The work that MESPA leaders actualized during those early years
under Bob's leadership laid the foundation for much of the Public
Employee Labor Relations Act (PELRA), which has evolved into the
bargaining rights principals have today.”
MESPA was
founded in 1950 by a group of principals who understood the importance of
developing a professional association. Volunteers ran the Minnesota Elementary
School Principals’ Association for the next 20 years. In 1971, the MESPA board of
directors hired its first executive director, Robert F. Arnold.
Bob’s experience
as president of the Minnesota Teachers’ Association (Education Minnesota, today)
brought organizational and advocacy skills to MESPA. Prior to joining MESPA he
was an elementary teacher in Richfield and Lake City and was selected as
Minnesota Teacher of the Year. In fact, he was my sister’s sixth grade teacher
in Lake City where my father was the high school band director. Bob was a friend
of my father’s and as a very young boy, I fondly remember deer hunting with
both of them.
The work that
MESPA leaders actualized during those early years under Bob’s leadership laid
the foundation for much of the Public Employee Labor Relations Act (PELRA),
which has evolved into the bargaining rights principals have today.
As a young
principal in Byron, I served as the MESPA Southeast Division membership committee
representative,  | | Robert F. Arnold, MESPA Executive Director 1971-1991 |
president-elect, and president. I felt fortunate to be in my
early thirties and involved with the MESPA Board of Directors under Bob’s
leadership. I actually hoped that someday I could do his work. I guess dreams
do come true!
Kay Douglass, MESPA
President from 1985-87 said it well: “Bob Arnold was a force to be reckoned
with in promoting the interests of children and elementary principals in the
Legislature during his years as MESPA executive director. I know from talking
with other executive directors and principals at national conventions that they
held Bob in high esteem and looked to MEPSA as a model for guidance with their
own associations.”
Bob Arnold was
executive director from 1971 until he retired in 1991. He summarized the
accomplishments of the association during those years in his last Executive Director’s Message in the
spring of 1991: “We have established professional standards, we have secured
stability in employment security and bargaining rights, and we have
participated in the public policy debate which impacts our schools. Certainly
there is concern about the future of public education in Minnesota, but there
is also great hope…and we are certain that our work will have positive effects
for untold years.”
It’s amazing how
18 years later those words still ring true! Robert F. Arnold passed peacefully
on October 11, 2009 at the age of 80 in his home in Osage, Minnesota. We honor
and thank Bob for his passionate commitment to the principalship!
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