William Franklin Arnold, Jr., 62, of 1886 S. Main St., Blakely, Ga., died Thursday afternoon at his residence following a lengthy illness. His memorial service will be held Saturday morning, April 12, 2014 at 11 A. M. in the First United Methodist Church, Blakely, Ga. with Rev. Jay Reppert and Rev. Dwight Bishop officiating. The family will receive friends in the church social hall from 10 AM until 10:45 Am, right before the memorial service.
Franklin was born June 27, 1951 in Cuthbert, Ga. to the late William Franklin Arnold, Sr. and Margaret Boyett Arnold. He was a member of the First United Methodist Church of Blakely, was a graduate of Georgia Tech, having received a B. A. degree in Industrial Management and was a self-employed businessman in Land Management. He was owner/operator of Liberty Hill Plantation in Early County/Blakely, Ga. Other than his parents he was preceded in death by his brother, Dr. David Arnold.
Franklin is survived by his wife, Deborah Barnett Arnold of Blakely, his son, William Franklin Arnold, III & wife Lindsay of Savannah, Ga., two daughters, Melinda A. Miller & husband Todd of Athens, Ga. and Elizabeth A. Williams & husband Josh of St. Simons Island, Ga. He has a sister, Margaret A. Jackson & husband Jim of Forsyth, Ga. and 5 grandchildren: William Franklin Arnold, IV and Ashleigh Arnold, both of Savannah, Andrew and Davis Miller, both of Athens, Ga. and Elizabeth James Williams of St. Simons Island, Ga.
In lieu of flowers, the family suggests that donations be made to either the American Heart Association, 1101 Northchase Parkway, Suite 1, Marietta, Ga. 30061-6411 or the the American Cancer Society, P. O. Box 22718, Oklahoma City, OK 73123-1718.
https://alumni.rockmont.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/logo-150-2x.png00adminhttps://alumni.rockmont.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/logo-150-2x.pngadmin2014-05-13 22:06:202026-04-06 15:39:32William “Franklin” Arnold Jr….aka Little Chief “Brisk Breeze”
I posted this news back in May, but after a few days, it inexplicably disappeared. On April 25, 2013, Janie Pickering went to her Heavenly home. Campers and/or staff members between the years of 1955-1987, were more than likely the recipient of her gracious kindness. Janie was the consummate first lady of camping. If you were a part of the Rockmont family, you were part of her family. Janie always had the welcome mat out to her home…and especially to her kitchen. Rockmonter Robert Paul Boone did a wonderful job of speaking at Janie’s service, recalling many fond memories of Janie. She will be missed!
https://alumni.rockmont.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/logo-150-2x.png00adminhttps://alumni.rockmont.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/logo-150-2x.pngadmin2014-01-06 10:06:432026-04-06 15:39:39In Loving Memory of Janie Williams Pickering
Donald Edward Ray, 74, of Sagaponack, NY, passed away Tuesday, December 18, 2012, after a heart attack in his home. He was born in Chapel Hill, NC. Don graduated from Stetson University and received a degree in Physical Education. Don played soccer and football, and coached football in Asheville, NC at David Miller Middle School and Owen School in Black Mountain, NC, after working for the UNC football team while in high school. He worked a number of years at Camp Rockmont, including as Director. Don worked for many years in the garment industry in New York, Atlanta and Boston. He then worked in restaurant management in New York, Charlotte and Boulder – fine dining was a passion. He spent the last 12 years as an Estate Manager in NYC and the Hamptons. He is survived by his son, Niles Damon Ray, Niles’ wife Amie, and their son Jordan, all of New York, NY.
Don is remembered by a large number of campers and staff as a high energy, motivational leader at camp. His outstanding career at Rockmont was foreshadowed by his receiving the “Best Camper” award at Camp Ridgecrest in the mid 1950’s. Don’s dynamic personality, high energy, always ready with a good word for everyone he met, was reflected at an early age with his given Little Chief name: “Buzzing Bee”. In the summer of 1956, with the founding of Camp Rockmont, Don, along with many Ridgecrest campers and staff, moved their enthusiasm for summer camping across the valley. As one of the first Rockmont staffers, Don brought his energy and upbeat viewpoint to every aspect of camp life. His attitude was contagious among the campers and staff. This talent, recognized and nurtured in the summers, led Don into his “winter career” of coaching. Don was one of the longest serving staff members at Rockmont and will be remembered for his significant contribution to summer camping.
Dan McFatter
Rockmont 1956-1970
I met Don Ray in the spring of 1967.Previously, Don was a football coach at Owen High School and currently the Director of Rockmont.He needed a few low skilled individuals who could be trained to use a rake, pick up sticks and swing a sling blade (before the days of weed eaters).I was a sophomore in the local high school and thought I just needed a job.
That is how I ended up at Rockmont for ten years.I recall Don Ray as gracious and patient with immature teenagers and someone we looked up to.Don introduced me to the incredible community of Rockmont men and women who have had such an impact on my life.Thanks Don.
Paul Gwaltney
Rockmont 1967-1976
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A short tenured but forever remembered Rockmont legend, Bob “Lighthouse” Leidy passed away on Dec 27. Bob’s 2 sons, Bobby and Christopher, attended Rockmont in the late 90’s. Lighthouse would drive his 70’s VW van from Palm Beach and park it behind the kickball backstop where he would stay while his boys were in camp. The van came to be called “cabin 41”. We currently have cabins in camp numbered up to 43, but skipped 41. Cabin 41 will forever be reserved for Lighthouses van. Lighthouse was a unique, lovable, fun-loving character who would do anything for anybody. He loved his boys and loved being a part of their camp experience. There is a short memorial slideshow in honor of our good friend Lighthouse in the “Photos” section of the Rockmont Alumni members website. Below is a copy of the obituary:
Robert Leidy, ‘bigger than life’ and longest-tenured Coconut, dies
Robert Leidy ‘was a friend of young and old and the life of the party for over 50 years in Palm Beach.’ — Photo by Nancy Ellison Rollnick
Daily News Staff Writers
Robert Peale Polk Leidy, a resident of Palm Beach for nearly 60 years, died Thursday, Dec. 27, 2012, at home, sitting in the garden that he loved so dearly. He was 75.
Born in Rye, N.Y., on Dec. 8, 1937, he was the son of Carter and Maria (Bouchard) Leidy, known to her family as Mimi. He was a descendant of a U.S. president and of the Peale family of 18th- and 19th-century artists.
He attended Rye Country Day School and Iona Prep, and went to the University of Miami on a basketball scholarship. While still a young man, he became a regular visitor to Palm Beach, where his mother had moved after his father’s untimely death.
Mr. Leidy was barely a week out of school when he received a job offer from a brokerage at what is now the site of Amici Market. He remained in the brokerage and money management business all of his life, with E.F. Hutton, Morgan Keegan, AG Edwards and Wachovia.
He was nicknamed Lighthouse, and once answered a Wall Street Journal reporter’s inquiry about its origins with, “It goes back 50 years. A friend of mine just thought I had a personality that shone and made everyone so happy.”
In reality, Lighthouse was the code name assigned to Mr. Leidy in the ledgers of a Palm Beach bookie.
“Bob lived life big,” said his former wife, Liza Pulitzer Calhoun. “He just did. I don’t think he knew how to live any other way.”
Mr. Leidy’s imposing physical presence was regularly seen at St. Edward, where he was a devoted and lifelong parishioner.
“My father’s faith was the most important thing in his life,” said his son Robert Leidy Jr. “He would take us every Sunday. He said his favorite thing was to be in church on Sunday mornings with his sons.”
Mr. Leidy made several mission trips to Haiti and delivered meals for the Meals on Wheels program.
But there was plenty of time reserved for the temporal, as well. Wherever he was, he was the life of the party.
George Dempsey, owner of the long-time bar that preceded Michael R. McCarty’s in the Royal Poinciana Plaza, met Mr. Leidy decades ago, when Mr. Leidy was attending the University of Miami.
Mr. Leidy loved to have a good time, Dempsey recalled. “He nearly ruined my bar more than once. He loved to have a good time. He drove the bartenders crazy but the customers loved it.”
With his longtime friend, the late Willie Hutton, Mr. Leidy was a sworn member of the auxiliary police force of the Town of Palm Beach. “That was just about the funniest thing I ever heard,” said his ex-wife. “I still can’t believe it.”
Mr. Leidy’s friendships spanned decades.
Restaurateur Michael McCarty knew Mr. Leidy for 40 years. They met in New York and would get together at social events and over golf in Palm Beach. “He was one of my best friends,” McCarty said. “He was one of those guys who are bigger than life. He cut a very wide swath.”
“He was a very caring father and very close personal friend, a real man’s man,” said Mitchell Slotkin of Palm Beach. He said he saw Mr. Leidy last week at the opening of son Chris Leidy’s photography studio, in Via Testa on Royal Poinciana Way. “We had a lot of memorable times together,” Slotkin said. “And we always enjoyed a good cigar.”
“He was nice to everybody regardless of their station in life and he was just a kind and generous person,” McCarty said.
Dempsey remembered calling Mr. Leidy when Dempsey had a terribly painful inner ear infection. Dempsey was ranching in Okeechobee County at the time, many miles west of Palm Beach. “All of a sudden you can’t stand up and lose your equilibrium,” Dempsey said. Mr. Leidy “came all the way out and drove me to Good Samaritan Hospital.”
Dempsey also called Mr. Leidy “quite a guy” who was a great parent. “He loved his two sons and they felt the same way about him.”
Lilly Pulitzer Rousseau had known Mr. Leidy since the late 1940s. “Since we met, when he was just a kid, he’s always been a part of our family, always celebrating holidays and always there for family occasions,” she said. “Bob was a great character; sometimes you wanted to clobber him, other times you wanted to just hug and kiss him.”
Mr. Leidy was married to Rousseau’s daughter Liza Pulitzer and was the father of their two sons, Christopher and Bobby. “He was a wonderful father and a great sport. He and Liza, even after they separated, had a terrific, loving relationship. I’ll miss him and that twinkle that was always in his eyes,” Rousseau said.
Mr. Leidy was a member of the Everglades Club and was the longest-tenured member of The Coconuts, for which he served as chairman, honorary chairman and chairman emeritus.
Willie Surtees of Palm Beach, also a member of The Coconuts, met Mr. Leidy 35 years ago in New York. “Bob Leidy was particularly larger than life,” Surtees said. “He was a friend of young and old and the life of the party for over 50 years in Palm Beach.”
Surtees called Mr. Leidy “wonderfully irreverent” and a “great character” who made friends with everyone. “He will be greatly missed by all those who knew him,” Surtees said.
“Everybody loved Bob,” said fellow Coconut Chris Meigher. “He bridged generations of Coconuts and he will always be one of us.”
In honor of Mr. Leidy, the group will shed their traditional white dinner jackets at Monday night’s New Year’s Eve party.
Instead, they will wear black.
In addition to his sons and his ex-wife, Mr. Leidy is survived by his brother Carter Leidy of Philadelphia; half-sister Phyllis Palsgrove of New York; nephews Carter Leidy and Page Leidy of Palm Beach; and niece Francie Leidy of Palm Beach. He is also survived by a brother, Joseph Leidy of Morristown, N.J.
There will be no visitation. A funeral Mass will take place at 10 a.m. Jan. 5 at St. Edward.
Memorial donations may be made to St. Edward Catholic Church, 144 N. County Road, Palm Beach, Fl 33480, or to the Our Lady of Florida Monastery, 1300 U.S. 1, North Palm Beach, FK 33408.
Quattlebaum Funeral Home is in charge of arrangements.
The Rockmont family is sad to have lost a true Rockmont legend. David Ridley is responsible for first getting R David Bruce to join the camp staff in 1973. David was born in Columbus, Ga, and graduated from Samford University and later, George Washington University. David was one of the original Rockmont staff when the camp opened in 1956. He retired from the US Navy after serving 21 years, and often spent his summer vacation as Director of Camp Ahoy..(.a cousin camp to Camp Rockmont on Lake James). In 1995, David and his wife Dorothy moved to Aiken, SC. Davids grandsons, David and Henry Earle, have spent many summers as Rockmont campers. We will all miss David’s generosity, kind spirit, and loving nature. He is second from the right in this vintage photo.
https://alumni.rockmont.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/logo-150-2x.png00adminhttps://alumni.rockmont.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/logo-150-2x.pngadmin2012-05-07 21:34:292026-04-06 15:41:27Rockmont “Hall of Famer” David Ridley 9/2/32-4/22/2012
