Josephine (Jodie) Arnold

Josephine Routheau Arnold (Jodie) passed away peacefully in her sleep on October 19th, 2020, after battling an undiagnosed illness for the past three years. Jodie’s loving husband of 63 years, William Howard Arnold Jr., a world-renowned nuclear physicist and engineer, succumbed to a stroke in 2015.
Jodie was born on May 1st, 1931, in Indianapolis. Her father, Edward Albert Routheau, a captain at the time and later a colonel, was stationed at Fort Benjamin Harrison. They moved to Columbia, South Carolina where Jodie grew up with her loving parents and a doting grandmother. Selling eggs daily from her chicken coop was one of Jodie’s early enterprises, which went really well until a chicken snake showed up, much to her mother’s dismay. Her father went off to war in the Pacific theater for three years, where he served as General Douglas MacArthur’s Chief of Staff. Jodie would often tell her children how terribly she missed her father during that long and challenging stretch, but always found comfort in her mother-her very best friend.
In high school and college, Jodie excelled in her studies. She was editor-in-chief of the high school newspaper and was often the lead in school plays and musicals. She attended Smith College for two years, where she was one of the top students in her class. In 1950, Jodie approached the Dean at Princeton University about enrolling there. He told her “Jodie, you can sit in any class you want, but over my dead body will a woman ever graduate from Princeton.” This became especially poignant when her daughter, Frances, not only graduated from Princeton thirty years later but also went on to win the 2018 Nobel Prize in Chemistry.
By 1951, Jodie’s father led the Army ROTC Program at Princeton and Jodie met her future husband Howard there. Howard’s mother was Elizabeth Welsh Mullen, and father was Lt. General William Howard (“Duke”) Arnold, the commander of the U.S. 5th Army and a Division commander in the final push to defeat the Japanese in 1944-45. Both sets of parents were friends as well as bridge partners. Jodie and Howard were married on June 13th, 1952 in the Army chapel at Ft. Myer, VA.
Jodie and Howard honeymooned at Macatawa Beach, near Holland, MI. Howard’s family had several cottages in Macatawa and the two lovebirds would later build their own cottage (“Restinghouse”) in the mid 1960’s. Jodie left college to support her husband’s career and start a family. Howard credited her astute judgement of character and ability to run a home and family, through many moves and changes, as a key to his success.
Jodie was very involved in every community in which she lived, belonging to and volunteering for countless social clubs and charities. She loved to entertain and was always a lively guest at parties, where one could always tell her location from her infectious laugh.
Jodie and Howard moved into an apartment at Freedom Village in Holland in 2013. They loved living there and the area and thoroughly enjoyed their final years together. A long-time Episcopalian, Jodie always had a deep root in faith, and found a home in Holland at the First Reformed Church.
Jodie brought so much joy to so many people, especially her children and grandchildren. She is survived by four of her five children, William Howard Arnold III (“Bill”) of Phoenix, AZ, Frances Hamilton Arnold of La Canada, CA, Edward Van Dyke Arnold (“Eddy”) of Lawrenceville, NJ, and Thomas Alexander Arnold (“Tom”) of Holland. Her son David Campbell Arnold passed away in 2019. She has nine surviving grandchildren: James Bailey, Joseph Lange, Elizabeth Arnold, Emily Arnold, Samuel Arnold, William Arnold, Gabby Arnold, Sarah Celeste, and Alexander Arnold, and one great-grandchild, James Austin Bailey.
A celebration of her life is being planned, but no date has been set yet. Donations can be made to the Harbor Humane Society at harborhumane.org. The family is being served by the Langeland-Sterenberg Funeral Home. www.langelandsterenberg.com.