Dr. Barbara Arnold was honored at the Knight Museum on June 9, where the Alliance Public Schools Foundation recognized Dr. Arnold, a member of the class of 1962, on her achievements and was added on the wall of fame for 2021.
To qualify for the wall of fame, you have to be a graduate of Alliance High School. Anyone can nominate a person and give information about the nominee. There is a committee that goes through the nominations and makes the selection. Several people had selected Dr. Arnold.
Dr. Arnold gives credit to her time in Alliance for helping jump-start her career, where she was a member of numerous extracurricular activities.
“Things like Methodist youth fellowship, junior high, high school and the 4-H speech contest gave me a jump start when leaving to start my career,” said Dr. Arnold.
Dr. Arnold received her undergraduate degree in Lincoln, then went on for two years of medical school in Omaha and then transferred to Colorado.
“There’s absolutely nothing wrong with the University of Nebraska School of Medicine, but at the time, I was engaged to somebody that wanted to go to Colorado. So, that’s how that happened,” said Dr. Arnold.
Dr. Arnold then graduated from the University of Colorado School of Medicine. While at the University of Colorado Medical center, she specialized in ophthalmology. Dr. Arnold also is an accomplished artist who paints using watercolors She has made six front covers of magazines. One of her paintings is going on permanent display with four other paintings at a new $43-million eye clinic and research facility that will finish construction in September.
“I don’t have to worry about which grandkid will get my art. The University will have five protected pieces that will outlive me,” said Dr. Arnold.
Dr. Arnold was also a Lieutenant Colonel in the United States Air Force Medical Corp. as a Flight Surgeon and she is a fourth-generation farmer.
Dr. Arnold currently resides in California and is active in Sacramento on the volunteer faculty as a professor of ophthalmology at the University of California Davis. She still has residents and family practice rotate through her office, where she practices as an ophthalmologist.
“I love teaching medical students how to do the eye exam,” said Dr. Arnold.
She took her pension distribution money and shared it with a place called Fairy Tale Town with some scholarship programs.
“One of the criteria for the scholarships is that you have to be from a town of 25,000 people or less. The whole idea was that I wanted to be able to help sponsor kids from smaller communities. Right now, there is a person from Scottsbluff on one of the Medical School scholarships,” said Dr. Arnold.
Dr. Arnold maintains a home in Alliance even though she lives in California and regularly visits Alliance. Some of the things she likes to do while in Alliance is participate in the Annual Heritage Days Road Run and donate to the track fund.
“It was easy for me to donate to the track fund because we didn’t have many women participate in athletics when I was in school,” said Dr. Arnold.
Dr. Arnold has accomplished many things in her life so far and continues to achieve her goals.
