Corona del Mar Man Nominated as the New Singapore Ambassador

President Reagan has nominated Daryl Arnold of Corona del Mar, president of the Irvine-based Western Growers Assn., to serve as U.S. ambassador to Singapore.

Arnold, 62, said a White House staff member called him Thursday night to say President Reagan had formally announced the nomination. The President had asked Arnold in January if he would consider the $77,500-a-year post.

“I told him it would be an honor,” Arnold said.

Arnold ‘s nomination is subject to approval by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and then the full Senate. He would replace former Ambassador J. Stapleton Roy, who was recalled to Washington in October to be deputy undersecretary of state.

Arnold has been president of the 2,200-member growers association, a trade group that represents the fresh fruit industry of California and Arizona.

Arnold, a Republican, said he expects that he and his wife, Shirley Ann, will leave for Singapore at the end of April or beginning of May.

“I feel very good about being able to represent my President, my country and the industry I have worked in so much of my life,” he said.

Arnold said he has known Reagan since the President was governor of California in the 1960s.

“This is obviously a political appointment,” Arnold said. ‘I’ll be the personal representative of the President of the United States to a nonaligned country.”

Arnold said his job would be to promote business and maintain the friendship between the two countries.

Singapore, just off the coast of Malaysia, has a population of about 2.6 million. The nation is made up of one main island, covering 221 square miles, and more than 50 smaller islands, covering 17 square miles combined. A republic, the country is governed by a parliament and a president.

To prepare for the job, Arnold must be briefed in security and protocol and must meet with Secretary of State George P. Shultz and Reagan.

“People here are ready, willing and anxious to work with him, but he has to go through the approval process first,” State Department spokesman Kenneth Bailes said.

The post will be Arnold’s third job under Reagan. He served on the Board of International Food and Agriculture Development from 1981 to 1983 and was then appointed to the U.S.-Japan Advisory Commission on which he served until 1985.

At the state level, Arnold served as a delegate to the Republican National Convention in 1980 and 1984. He has been a member of the California Fair Board for two years, and he has also served on the Economic Development Corporation under Gov. George Deukmejian for the past three years.

The Arnolds have lived in Corona del Mar since 1971. They have two sons, one daughter and six grandchildren.