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Attended First Formula One Race, 1972 USGP 

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Attended First Formula One Race, 1972 USGP 

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As a big motorsports fan, this was a childhood dream of Arthur's. He still remembers getting to see his favorite driver Ayrton Senna.

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Witnessing the invention of the internet, smartphones and the shift from black and white to color television, Arthur has seen technology evolve greatly through out his life. In his career he was able to complete laboratory tests much faster and easier and therefore he greatly appreciates the technology we have today. He says the biggest thing that has changed is our dependency on technology. For example, he now spends time on his smart phone when he isn't doing anything instead of reading books.

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How has our culture's values changed over Arthur's lifetime? 

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How has our culture's values changed over Arthur's lifetime? 

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Arthur says one big shift in our culture is the way that the elderly are valued within our society. Arthur spent his entire life caring for elderly veterans at the VA hospital and was taught to appreciate the wisdom and knowledge of the older generations from living with his elderly grandmother as a kid. Arthur says today our culture does not show the same respect for the elderly and that our traditional values have changed as a whole. Arthur is part of the "baby boomer" generation which was very large compared to other generations. He thinks that because his generation is so big and there has been such a rise in elderly individuals, ageism has become increasingly more common.

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Arthur's wife Cathy, tragically passed away on June 22, 2008. She had battled cancer for 6 and a half years. Arthur said after this tragic event he has now learned to cherish every moment with his loved ones, because you never know when it might be your last.

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This was the last concert Arthur got to attend with his late wife Catherine Rose. They went with their close friends Amy and Rich Roberts.

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U2-Live! Phoenix, AZ May 22nd, 2015 FULL CONCERT 1080p60

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After owning many cats and wanting a dog through out his life, Arthur finally adopted Kimi, a Siberian husky, in March 2020. She helps him stay healthy and active as he ages, as they go on 3 mile walks everyday.

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Arthur had posters of Ferraris all over his room as a kid and this was one of his childhood dreams that he had worked very hard to achieve.

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On January 27th, 1999 at 4:14 am Arthur's first child with wife Catherine Rose was born. Arthur was sick with the flu at the time his daughter was born and the baby had arrived 2 months early. Despite all of this, he remembers this as one of the best days of his life.

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Arthur wearing a hat on his 65th birthday with an ageist expression on it

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When Arthur turned 65 he realized that he had reached a new chapter of his life. He began to experience some ageism and tries to keep a good sense of humor about any ageist language used towards him. He began to reflect back on his life more and started focusing a lot on doing the "bucket list" things he still wants to achieve/do.

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Jimmy Hendrix was his favorite musician growing up and he got to see him perform 3 times in the late 1960s.

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Arthur with his family at the famous Blue Lagoon spa in Norðurljósavegur, Iceland

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It was a lifelong dream of Arthur's to see this professional cycling race

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Attended the Tour De France in Paris in 2007

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Attended the Tour De France in Paris in 2007

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"Any big task is like eating an elephant, you do it one piece at a time."
Arthur learned that when you are completely overwhelmed with a large amount of work or responsibilities, the best thing you can do is take it one small step at a time. This is a motto he lives by.

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Graduate Certification in Medical Technology 

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Graduate Certification in Medical Technology 

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Arthur graduated from the University of Arizona's medical technology graduate program in 1984. This was the beginning of his long career as a med tech and clinical chemist where he gained much knowledge through out the fields of microbiology, biology, pathology and chemistry. He eventually went on to manage the entire laboratory department at the VA Hospital in Tucson for over 20 years.

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Graduated from Northeastern Illinois University 

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Graduated from Northeastern Illinois University 

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Arthur graduated in 1975 with a Bachelor's Degree in Biology. He was the first of his family to graduate college.

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AIDS Epidemic Changed the Way Hospitals Operated- Beginning of PPE 

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AIDS Epidemic Changed the Way Hospitals Operated- Beginning of PPE 

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The epidemic's early days were perplexing and terrifying

smithsonianmag.com

Thirty-six years ago, the words "HIV" and "AIDS" weren't yet invented. But what would later be known as HIV was already at work in the bodies of men in New York and California, perplexing doctors who had no idea why their patients were dying. Then, in July 1981, the United States was given its first look at the mysterious illness with the first major news story to cover the emerging disease. Decades later, it's a fascinating glimpse into the early days of the AIDS epidemic.

Entitled "Rare Cancer Seen in 41 Homosexuals," the article was penned by Lawrence K. Altman and appeared in the New York Times. At the time, gay men were dying of an unusual disease. They presented with purple spots on the skin, and their lymph nodes eventually became swollen before they died. It seemed to be cancer-but the symptoms matched a type usually only seen in very old people. The people who were dying at the time, however, were young and otherwise healthy. Doctors did not understand what was happening or whether the cancer was contagious.

Doctors later learned that this particular type of cancer, Kaposi's Sarcoma, is an "AIDS-defining condition" that marks the transition of HIV into its late stages. A month before the article was published in The New York Times, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention had reported another set of strange symptoms- Pneumocystis carinii pneumonia that, like the cancer, was occurring in seemingly healthy gay men. But it was unclear if the conditions were linked or why they were happening.

"In hindsight, of course," wrote Altman in 2011, "these announcements were the first official harbingers of AIDS...But at the time, we had little idea what we were dealing with."

This led to confusion and, sometimes, panic as scientists tried to figure out what was going on. As Harold W. Jaffe writes in a commentary paper published in Nature Immunology, it was unclear at first whether the disease was new. Rumors began to spread of a "gay cancer"-despite the occurrence of new cases in people who had received blood transfusions, straight women and infants. There was little reliable information about what was going on within the gay community, Harold Levine, a New Yorker who lived through these early days of the epidemic, tells New York Magazine's Tim Murphy. Levine says he heard about a case of "gay cancer" from friends. "It was a few months before I heard about a second case, then the floodgates opened and it was all we could talk about," he says.

Even after the existence of HIV was discovered to be the cause of AIDS in 1984, stigma about homosexuality and intravenous drug use colored the public's perception of the disease. Many gay people hid their health struggles, and it took years for President Ronald Reagan to publicly acknowledge HIV/AIDS. Meanwhile, as Smithsonian.com reports, the false identification of flight attendant Gaétan Dugas as "patient zero" spread the rumor that he was responsible for bringing the disease to the United States. But last year, decades after his death from HIV/AIDS, genetic research cleared him of these claims.

Today, the concept of "gay cancer" has been replaced with extensive knowledge about HIV/AIDS, which is not limited to homosexual men and is no longer a death sentence for many patients. According to the World Health Organization, over 35 million people have died of HIV/AIDS thus far, and as of the end of 2015, there were nearly 37 million people living with HIV.

There's no cure-yet. And stigma is still considered a major roadblock for getting effective treatment to people at risk and infected with HIV/AIDS. The first glimpse of the infection's deadly consequences is a poignant document of how confusing the epidemic was during its early days-and a reminder of just how far we've come.

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About Erin Blakemore

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This Was the First Major News Article on HIV/AIDS

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smithsonianmag.com Thirty-six years ago, the words "HIV" and "AIDS" weren't yet invented. But what would later be known as HIV was already at work in the bodies of men in New York and California, perplexing doctors who had no idea why their patients were dying.

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Arthur joined his first rock band in Chicago when he was 13 years old. The band was called Shades of Grey. This was the beginning of his time as a musician. He went on to be in several bands over the next 20 years.

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Led Zeppelin - Live in Chicago 1975 (Rare Film Series)

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Arthur and Catherine Rose got married on March 17th, 1989. They were married on the beach in Carmel, CA. The notary public official that was to marry them didn't show up for the wedding initially, as it was St. Patrick's Day and he had forgotten about the wedding. Arthur's father in law drove around Carmel looking for the notary public and brought him back to the venue so they could finally go through with the ceremony.

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2 Days before the end of the Vietnam war in 1971, Arthur was called to be drafted. The day he was set to get on a plane the war was announced to be over and the draft had ended. Arthur considers this to be one of the luckiest days of his life, especially because Vietnam war veterans were not treated with respect once they came back home.

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The day that the planes crashed into the twin towers in 2001 was an extremely impactful event in Arthur's life. He worked at the VA Hospital in Tucson at the time of the attacks and was called to come into work on hazard pay just in case there were more attacks and medical staff was needed. He remembers seeing the tragedy unfold on the news and rushing into work shortly after.