Hundreds Gather To Remember ‘Sweet Arnie’ Relatives, Friends Recall Boy Who Was Considerate And Unselfish
His sisters remembered Arnold Fritz as the boy they used to dress up as The Fonz, complete with greased-back hair.
“You stuck out your finger and said ‘Cool,”’ his sisters wrote in a letter read aloud Wednesday during Fritz’s funeral.
The 14-year-old boy was killed last week, when a classmate opened fire in a Frontier Junior High School classroom. Teacher Leona Caires, 49, and student Manuel Vela, 14, also were killed.
More than 700 relatives, friends, church members and schoolchildren packed Immanuel Lutheran Church for the funeral.
They didn’t all fit in the sanctuary. Many watched the memorial service on a big-screen television in another large room. Another 30 crammed into the church balcony.
Fritz was active in his church and enjoyed fishing, hunting, chess and playing with his dogs, family members said.
Michelle Abrahms, a Frontier seventh-grader, and many other students were excused to attend the 1 p.m. funeral service, about a block from the school. Abrahms said Fritz was a shy, considerate student.
“If he didn’t like someone, he didn’t say anything about them,” she said. “He was really nice.”
Fritz’s older sisters - Nyla, Lenea and Renee - described him as a sweet child who grew into a curious, loving boy.
A Frontier teacher, Carol Smith, read their letter to Fritz.
Once, his mother bought him a pair of Nike shoes. He wasn’t thrilled as many young boys would be.
Fritz told his mother the shoes were too expensive and said she should return them.
“That, sweet Arnie, is such an amazing show of selflessness,” the sisters wrote.
Another Frontier teacher, Chris Koester, read notes from teachers.
“When Arnie started a project, he was totally committed to it,” one teacher said.
Koester also read notes from students. “One note stands out for me: ‘Arnie, we will miss you. Have a good life in heaven.”’
His grandmother, Evelyn Ellestad, thanked God for providing her grandson with “all the little things that make life enjoyable.”
“Thank you for all the fun times we had with him,” Ellestad said.
After the service, the family tearfully followed the boy’s casket, carried by pallbearers, out of the church.
Before it was over, the Rev. Kevan Smith said the death of a child takes away the future as well as the past.
He was thankful Fritz’s parents, Phillip and Alice, were surrounded by friends and family but hoped the supporters wouldn’t say one thing: “We should never say, it is the will of God.”
“God doesn’t go around the world with his finger on the trigger.”
, DataTimes