ARNOLD LEONARD HUNSBERGER
April 5, 1925 - November 20, 2003
Life is a one-way train we ride between the stations of Birth and Death. Sometimes, the train is a Local, sometimes an Express, But it is the only train that guarantees absolute passage between its end points. Now Arnold "Arn" Hunsberger has completed his journey. He was felled by a massive heart attack at his rural home in Dulzura, Calif, on Thursday, November 20th.
Arn was a self-educated inventor, engineer and retired entrepreneur, a complex man called "brilliant" by those who knew him well. He was a member of the Railway Museum's Board of Trustees in recent years and served as President from 2001 to 2003. In 2002, he agreed to temporarily assume the additional mind-bending duties of Executive Director as an unpaid volunteer.
He held that position until the current Board assumed the administrative duties of the Museum on January 1, 2003.
Arn was born in Indianapolis, Indiana, to home of the legendary Indy 500 auto race. As a young man, he had an opportunity to hang around the race car garages, and eventually acquired his own Indy race car. It was this unlicensed, non-street-legal race car chassis with a roaring, unmuffled Offenhauser racing engine that Arn and his business partner, Dick McIntyre, decided to take on a quick joy ride down winding, narrow Highway 94 to the Dulzura Cafe one day years ago. It was such a "spur of the moment" event that Arn hadn't bothered to take along his driver's license or other identification, so when an alert Highway Patrolman finally pulled them over, be had some tall explaining to do.
Arn came to California about 1950 and was standing in line for a job at Convair when an agent of the local Pacific Elevator Co. hired him to work for that firm. About this time, he met Dick McIntyre, a tooling department employee at Chula Vista's Rohr Industries.
Arn and Dick became fast friends and later business partners in several electrical and elevator enterprises here. They both held patents for various devices they developed. Eventually, their company developed elevators for the Mercury space capsule and Saturn rocket projects at Cape Canaveral, and the rocket-launching facilities at California's Pt. Arguello. They also designed and built the world's first-known all-glass exterior building elevator in 1956 for San Diego's landmark El Cortez Hotel. The revolutionary concept received wide acclaim and was featured in LIFE Magazine. Since then. the concept has been copied by architects worldwide Arn and Dick sold their Spring Valley, California - based U.S. Elevator Co. in 1971 and
Arn eventually retired from the world of business in 1974.
About 1976, Arn and Dick visited the railway museum's American Revolution Bicentennial train exhibit on San Diego's Embarcadero and picked up a membership application, later joining as members. They immediately lent their talents to various Museum projects, including our exhibit at Miramar NAS and Old Poway Village in Poway. The "dynamic duo" was responsible for troubleshooting and running our very first diesel-electric locomotive, ex-USAF 45-tonner #7485, the "Ant" for the first time in 1978. This engine later served yeoman duty hauling our collection to Campo on "Great Freight I" in 1983.
After Arn let his membership lapse for several years, he rejoined about three years ago and was an active member until his death. In recent years, he was an avid supporter of the restoration of train service through the Carrizo Gorge section of the historic SD & AE rail line.
Arn is survived by Margaret, his wife of 20 years, and two children by a previous marriage. The Museum extends its deepest condolences to his widow and family. Private services are planned. In lieu of flowers, the family suggests memorial contributions in Arn's name to a favorite charity.
(Contributed by Dick Pennick, with special thanks to Dick McIntyre and Dave Slater )
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