Born in Montgomery Alabama in 1954 to Birdie and Frank, Richard “Sid” Arnold was professor of English in VIU’s Arts and Humanities faculty for 25 years. Richard studied at the University of South Alabama, the University of Victoria, and the University of Alabama, where he received his doctorate in 1994 after completing a dissertation on conservation and uses of nature in the writing of Thoreau, Muir, and Abbey. Before he came to Vancouver Island, Richard served overseas in the U.S. Navy, promoted to the rank of Commander in the U.S. Naval reserve in 1995. While visiting Victoria, Richard fell in love with and eventually moved to Vancouver Island.
A devoted teacher, Richard always said that he was most interested in helping students develop their voice and to identify and realize their own talent. His love of nature drove his study of literature and his teaching, and he was known to frequently lead his students out of the classroom onto the trails and into the woods.
Richard was a passionate environmentalist and fiercely devoted lover of nature who advocated for many environmental causes and organizations. He was committed to learning about and advocating for the many diverse ecosystems on Vancouver Island. In the late 1970s, on a naval ship from Hawaii to San Diego, Richard learned to navigate by the stars. In the early eighties, he canoed the Yukon River, hiked across Sierra National Park, climbed Mt. Whitney, and cycled 1000 miles up the California coast. In 2009, he hiked across the Big Raven Plateau in Mount Edziza Provincial Park with friends. He climbed more than a dozen mountains on Vancouver Island, and he is remembered by friends, students, and colleagues for leading countless hikes up Mount Benson. Richard was also remembered for his gentle, kind demeanor and his caring nature which shone through him onto others.
In addition to publishing more than 40 poems in various magazines and journals, Richard published a chapbook collection of poetry called Fuse in 2002 and a Haiku pamphlet in 2003. He left an unpublished manuscript of 88 poems called A Wolf in the Choir. A consummate explorer of the natural world and an enduring environmentalist, Richard’s scholarship and teaching frequently crossed paths with his love of nature.
Richard was loved and respected by students, who often noted how he changed the way they looked at and interacted with nature and the environment. As Henry David Thoreau put it in his essay “Walking,” “I wish to speak a word for Nature, for absolute Freedom and Wildness.”
Richard's family has created an endowed student award of $1000 annually. The Richard Arnold Award is available to students with an English Major (or Minor), who demonstrate a passionate engagement with the environment through written work and/or environmental stewardship activities.
