A native of Texarkana, Texas, Richard Sheppard Arnold was the son of a lawyer; all of the men, on both sides of his family were lawyers. As he commented, “I never really considered being anything else.” Growing up steeped in the law, his vision set, he took a diploma in Classical Studies from Phillips Exeter Academy in 1953, a member of the Cum Laude Society. He then went to Yale University, where he majored in Latin and Greek, was president of the Yale debating Association, a member of the Elizabethan Society and elected to Phi Beta Kappa before graduating summa cum laude in 1957. He attended Harvard Law School, where he earned the Sears Prize for the best grades in his first-year class, and the Fay Diploma, for being first academically in his graduating class of 1960; LL.B, magna cum laude.
His first year out of law school, he served as law clerk to Justice William J. Brennan Jr. in the Supreme Court of the United States, before joining the Washington, DC office of Covington & Burling as an associate from 1961 to 1964, also serving as a part-time instructor at the University of Virginia Law School. In 1964 he accepted a partnership offer at Arnold & Arnold in Texarkana, where he established a reputation as a hard-working gentlemanly adversary, combining unwavering integrity and impeccable demeanor with great skill in law. While at Arnold & Arnold, he began working as legislative secretary to Arkansas Governor, Dale Bumpers. In 1974, when Bumpers was elected Senator, he again moved to Washington, DC to serve as the Senator’s Legislative Assistant.
In 1978, Richard Arnold was nominated by President Jimmy Carter to serve as U.S. District Judge for the Eastern and Western Districts of Arkansas and was confirmed that same year. In 1980, President Carter again nominated Judge Arnold to a new seat on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit, where he served as chief judge from 1992 to 1998, taking senior status in April 2001.
Judge Arnold has been an active leader of many professional associations, and been a vital participant in numerous civic, political, educational and judicial committees and projects. For his service and leadership, he has received the Environmental Law Institute Award (1996); The Award for Leadership in Support of Women in the Law (Women Lawyers Association of Greater St. Louis, 1996); The Edward J. Devitt Distinguished Service to Justice Award (American Judicature Society, 1999); The Meador-Rosenberg Award (American Bar Association, 1999); The Morton A. Brody Distinguished Judicial Service Award (Colby College, 2004) and The Scribes Lifetime Achievement Award (2004). He has been received honorary LL.D. degrees from the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville (1992), The university of Richmond (1998) and the University of Arkansas at Little Rock (1999).
His written opinions are well reasoned, focused and display his mastery of the written word. An informative and enjoyable speaker, Judge Arnold is also a renowned writer of legal articles for many of the nation’s most respected law reviews and journals.
Professor Frank I. Michelman, Robert Walmsley University Professor at Harvard Law School, a close friend of Judge Arnold since their college and law school days together, summarizes the many nominations received recommending of Judge Arnold for the Powell Award: “Judge Arnold’s reputation for scholarly excellence in the law, and for thoughtful reflectiveness about the judicial craft and judicial responsibility, is amply deserved and is unexcelled by any judge of this generation. There are other brilliant judges, of course, but judicial brilliance does not always come coupled, as it does so notably in Judge Arnold’s case, with high self-consciousness about the limits and obligations of the judicial office. Nor does it always come coupled with the humane sensibility that has been the hallmark of Arnold’s judging, or with the personal warmth, decency, humor and consideration for others that Judge Arnold’s friends and co-workers so cherish in him. I have never encountered a current or former clerk or member of his staff who is not devoted to Judge Arnold as to a member of the family, and no current or former clerk who does not regard him as a major lifetime teacher and role model. There is no judge in the country to whom I would sooner send my students for mentoring and continuing legal education (and general education) than to Judge Arnold.”
In May 2002, the U.S. Courthouse in Little Rock, Arkansas was renamed in Judge Arnold’s honor. In June of the same year some 300 people gathered to dedicate the commissioned portraits for that facility. Eighth Circuit Chief Judge David R. Hansen spoke of Richard Arnold as a judge blessed with “a truly exceptional intellect” and an “unfailingly courteous demeanor.” He also noted that Judge Arnold’s former boss, the late Supreme Court Justice William J. Brennan Jr., once described his former law clerk as “one of the most gifted members of the federal judiciary.” Some ten years earlier, A Tribute to Chief Judge Richard S. Arnold in the Minnesota Law Review (Vol. 78, No. 1) contained articles of commendation and praise from Justice Brennan, John P. Frank and Judge Patricia M. Wald, who themselves would be selected in future years as recipients of the Louis F. Powell, Jr. Award.
Judge Arnold and his wife Kay Kelley Arnold live in Little Rock, Arkansas. They have two daughters Janet Sheppard Arnold Hart and Lydia Palmer Arnold Turnipseed.
Judge Arnold died on September 23, 2004 following a long illness.