Los Angeles
County
Biographies
ROY
LESLIE ARNETT, SR., B.S., D.D.S.
Not
many men can claim the distinction of being married to one of their high school
teachers, but Roy Leslie Arnett, Sr., B.S., D.D.S., did marry his mathematics
teacher, the former Miss Ruth Dillenback, right after
his graduation from Alhambra High School in 1923. However, this was no May and December
marriage, since Dr. Arnett had left Whittier High School in 1917 to work for
the Standard Oil Company of California, and while still employed there,
attended Alhambra High School part time to earn his diploma.
A
native son of California, and the only boy of the six children of Edward Joseph
Arnett of Independence, Missouri, a farm implement salesman, and Aley Hickox Arnett, who at the
age of six came to California from Texas with her parents in a covered wagon,
Dr. Arnett was born in Los Angeles on November 15, 1899. One of his sisters, Mrs. Edna A. McFann, resides in El Monte.
Beginning
his elementary education in Los Angeles and completing it in Los Nietos, young Roy Arnett attended Whittier High School until
1917. Employed in the production
department of Standard Oil Company in 1918, he moved to Alhambra the following
year and graduated from Alhambra High School in 1923. He was married to Miss Ruth Dillenback in Los Angeles on June 26 of the same year. Mrs. Arnett, a resident of Alhambra since
1904, was born in Johnstown, New York on January 14, 1898, and is a graduate of
the University of Southern California.
Beginning a long teaching career in 1919, Mrs. Arnett taught at Alhambra
High School from 1921 until her retirement in 1960, taking a maternity leave
for the birth of each of her children.
Awarded a life membership in the National Congress of Parents and
Teachers by the Parent-Teacher Association of Alhambra High School, Mrs. Arnett
is also a member of the Round Table Club of Alhambra as well as the Women’s
Auxiliary to the San Gabriel Valley Dental Society and the American Association
of University Women.
Dr.
Arnett received his Bachelor of Science degree and Doctor of Dental Surgery
degree from the University Of Southern California School Of Dentistry,
graduating in 1931. He is a charter
member of the Century Club of the University of Southern California’s School of
Dentistry.
In
dental practice in Los Angeles from 1931 to 1940, Dr. Arnett was compelled to
interrupt his professional duties due to pulmonary tuberculosis. In 1944 he established his practice in
Pasadena in the First Western Bank Building at 595 East Colorado Boulevard, and
is still at that location. Specializing
in periodontics, Dr. Arnett is a Diplomate of the American Board of
Periodontology. He is a member of the
San Gabriel Valley Dental Society, the Los Angeles County Dental Society, the
Southern California State Dental Association, and the American Dental
Association. He is the president of
Dentists United of Pasadena and Altadena.
He is also a member of the Western Society of Periodontology, was
president of that society in 1959, and, by invitation, is a member of the
American Academy of Periodontology.
Affiliated with Psi Omega, a national dental fraternity, Dr. Arnett also
received an award key in 1931 from Omicron Kappa Upsilon, a national scholastic
dental honorary fraternity, as well as the Los Angeles County Dental Society
medal which is granted to one graduating student each year for the highest
scholastic standing.
Residing
at 200 South Atlantic Boulevard, Alhambra, both Dr. and Mrs. Arnett are members
of the First Presbyterian Church of Alhambra.
Dr. Arnett is a past deacon and teaching elder of the church. He was chairman of the organ committee which
raised funds and installed the organ in the church in 1952, a past member of
the board of trustees, and was on the building committee for the new addition
to the church. Mrs. Arnett is a member
of the Women’s Association of the church.
Dr.
and Mrs. Arnett are both life members of the Barlow Sanatorium Guild.
Dr.
Arnett is a member of the Alhambra Masonic Lodge Number 322, and on the board
of directors of The Friends of the Library in Alhambra.
The
Arnett’s have two children: Mrs. Howard
E. (Lois Anne) Monroe, a resident of Alhambra, who teaches at San Gabriel High
School and the mother of two sons, Bruce Alan and Douglas Emerson; and Dr. Roy
Leslie Arnett, Jr., a dentist, whose wife is the former Nada Rapelje of San Gabriel.
They have one child, Leslie Ann.
Transcribed by
V. Gerald Iaquinta.
Source:
Historical Volume & Reference Works Including Alhambra, Monterey Park,
Rosemead, San Gabriel & Temple City, by Robert P. Studer,
Pages 689-692, Historical Publ., Los Angeles, California. 1962.
© 2013 V. Gerald Iaquinta.
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