Arnold Lawrence Sweet

Arnold attended City College of NY for his undergraduate degree and subsequently earned a master’s degree from the University of Maryland and a PhD from Purdue University in 1960. Arnold stayed on as faculty in the Department of Industrial Engineering for the rest of his career until he retired in 2008 (at age 73). He lived in West Lafayette, Indiana, until 2023, when he moved to Mercer Island, WA.

He married Janet Rae in 1959 in Washington DC, who was working for the British Embassy at the time, but who died in 2009, just a few days after their 50th wedding anniversary.

Arnold had longstanding interests in long-distance running as well as history. He and Janet ran competitively throughout their lives in races around Indiana, were members of the Wabash River Runners Club, and he passed on his genes and love for running to his son, David, and his grandson, Andrew. He trained for many years at the Purdue Track and Fieldhouse and participated in the A.H. Ismail Center for Preventive and Lifestyle Medicine, begun by long-time friend and Professor Hafez Ismail.

He pursued his interest in the history of Purdue and West Lafayette through avidly collecting postcards that depicted historical events and places (before cameras were common). He and his good friend Pete Bill wrote and published a pictorial book based on his postcard collection on the Flood of 1913 that devastated a large swath of land in and around Tippecanoe County. Before Arnold passed, he donated his vast and informative collections to the Tippecanoe Historical Society and to Purdue University.

Arnold is survived by his sons, David and Ian; four grandchildren, Andrew, Rachel, Sarah, and Samantha; and nieces/nephews Stuart, Steven, and Melinda. In addition to his parents, he is preceded in death by his wife, Janet, and brother Stewart.

A Funeral Service will be held at Forest Lawn Funeral Home on June 19th, from 1PM to 4PM.

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