High Sierra Topix

Don't know how many of you knew (or read) Phil Arnot...

www.legacy.com/us/obituaries/sfgate/nam ... =198301887

I met him as a student at Carlmont High, where he taught social studies--always quite provocative. But the obit doesn't mention his second (?) wife Debbie Smith, who was a student in my class there. She was 18 and he was about 45 when they married...he must have been dating her while she was in school. They divorced a few years later...and she committed suicide sometime shortly after that.

Very sad story...Debbie lived on my street back then--a nice kid who was quite "developed" for her age...

The story always made me sad..m

Well good for the obit writers. I certainly would not like the more shady parts of my past to be put in an obit. Rather than dig up a questionable part of his life (for which no outsider really knows the "truth") I am glad his obit is a celebration of his life.

Wandering Daisy wrote: ↑Tue Nov 16, 2021 8:47 am I certainly would not like the more shady parts of my past to be put in an obit.

Well, now I'm curious....

But the obit doesn't mention his second (?) wife Debbie Smith, who was a student in my class there. She was 18 and he was about 45 when they married...he must have been dating her while she was in school. They divorced a few years later...and she committed suicide sometime shortly after that.

Very sad story...Debbie lived on my street back then--a nice kid who was quite "developed" for her age...

I'm sorry, but I don't see the need to share this information on a Sierra forum since it has nothing to do with his work with the Sierra but rather his personal life, which he is no longer here to defend.

Some may thrive on such information but sensationalizing someone's flaws, or mistakes is a sad commentary on today's society and maybe a reflection on one's shortcomings; this is not to say you, Balzaccom, that is what you are doing there.

I enjoyed his "Range of Light" and other books and couldn't care less or see the need for sorted information from his past, substantiated or not.