Obituary

Young Chang

COSTA MESA -- Kids used to knock on the late Harold “Sam” Arnold’s

door and ask his ex-wife Dottie if he could come out and play.

Mr. Arnold would gladly oblige, talking with the young visitors and

telling wild tales about how Native Americans had given him the tattoos

that smothered both his arms.

He was one to lend out a couple bucks to kids who were running short,

one to straighten out a juvenile gone astray by explaining just why

shoplifting wasn’t right.

“He was always doing things for people,” Dottie Arnold said. “Always

trying to help them out.”

The 35-year veteran of the Costa Mesa Police Department died last week

after battling cancer. He was 75.

One of the first policemen in the department, serving even as a

reserve officer before the city was incorporated, Mr. Arnold held

positions ranging from the patrol division to the juvenile and detective

divisions.

Mr. Arnold worked at the front desk, where his picture still hangs,

before retiring in 1989.

“He was known at the Police Department as being the prankster,” Dottie

Arnold said. “He was always pulling jokes and stuff like that on the

different policemen.”

Police Chief Dave Snowden added that Mr. Arnold had a sense of humor

that is still “legendary” at the department, with all the practical jokes

he’d play in the days when you could get away with them.

“To this day, he sets the standard for the way our front-desk person

interacts with the public,” Snowden said. “He was a true gentleman in

every meaning of the word.”

The Wichita, Kan., native was born Dec. 5, 1926. He moved to Costa

Mesa as a young child and lived here for more than 60 years before

retiring from the department and moving to Wildomar.

Mr. Arnold was also a Navy veteran of World War II.

But to colleagues and neighborhood kids, the police officer was best

known as a source of tall tales and endless laughs.

Grandson Joshua Johnson, 23, remembers many times he heard how the

Police Department ran in the ‘50s -- how the staff was made up of merely

12 people and how policies back then were so different. Mr. Arnold was

proud, Johnson said, of how much larger the staff is today.

“He used to love that,” the grandson said.

Mr. Arnold is survived by wife Carla Arnold, son Chris Arnold,

daughter Sandra Krall, grandsons Douglas and Joshua Johnson, and stepson

Adam Roulston.

A funeral will be held at 1 p.m. Wednesday at Westminster Memorial

Park, 14851 Beach Blvd., Westminster.