Alicia student's memorial to live on

He loved to walk, his sisters remember, and 13-year-old Rod Rommel Arnold had turned down rides that rainy day before a drunken driver struck and killed the teenager as he walked near Arboga Road in Linda.

Alicia Intermediate School, which he attended, practically emptied for the funeral services that followed Arnold's death on Feb. 28, 1974.

"The place was just packed," his brother Ricky Arnold, 57, recalled. "It was so full."

Students remembered him with a memorial that included a bronze plaque — and the Marysville Joint Unified School District said it plans to keep the school commemoration as the now-closed Alicia Intermediate is scheduled for demolition. The school that opened in the 1940s closed in 2008.

"I'm open to suggestions by the family," Superintendent Gay Todd said of where the plaque should be placed. "We will need to make sure the memorial is moved to a safe location."

Todd said the plaque could be moved to the new middle school in west Linda planned to replace Alicia.

Marysville resident Rachel Ferris, younger sister of Rod Arnold, wants the memorial to stay in a school. Her brother died because of a drunken driver, she said, and the plaque "puts a face" to the consequences of such actions.

Sherri Mayo, Rod's sister who now lives in Broken Arrow, Okla., welcomed word that the plaque will be preserved.

"He was a very happy boy," Mayo remembered.

Trees were planted as part of his memorial. The boy's outdoor plaque was eventually moved inside at Alicia Intermediate.

Jack Stokes, principal of the school for 23 years, said the memorial is still at the school.

Terri King, a classmate of Arnold's at Cedar Lane Elementary as well as Alicia, learned of the planned demolition after an Aug. 9 fire damaged the school.

Rod Arnold was her first boyfriend, King recalled, and as a fifth-grader he gave her her first kiss. When Arnold was killed in the eighth grade, it was her first experience with death.

"Being that young, you think you're never going to die," King recalled.

She, like the family, is pleased that Marysville Joint Unified plans to preserve Rod Arnold's memorial.

"I just remember him very well," she said.

CONTACT Ryan McCarthy at 749-4707 or rmccarthy@appealdemocrat.com.