The Arnold Family

Norman J. Arnold

Chairman of the Arnold Companies, Norman J. Arnold was born in Charleston in 1929 and moved to Columbia in 1938. After graduating from Oglethorpe University in 1952, he joined the Ben Arnold Company and later established the Arnold Family Corporation.  Mr. Arnold worked in all departments of the family business, founded in 1907 by his grandfather, Isaac Ginsberg, except for a four-year tour of duty as a naval officer in the Pacific during the Korean conflict.  At the unexpected death of his father in 1963, he became President and CEO.

Under his leadership, the Company had continuous and substantial growth and in 1992 was listed among the top ten privately owned businesses in South Carolina.  The Company was selected by the University Of South Carolina Graduate School Of Business as one of four “Model South Carolina companies” for study by the Advanced Management students.
Mr. Arnold was a Director of the Wine and Spirits Wholesalers of America for 28 years.  In 1964 he was elected Chairman of its Council of Young Executives.  He was a recipient of the 1977 TIME Magazine Distinguished Community Service Award.  He served as Chairman of the Advisory Board of Directors of the Citizens and Southern Bank (now Bank of America).

Mr. Arnold was a founder and past president of the Boy’s Clubs in Columbia and one of the founders and past president of the Columbia Zoological Park.  He was Chairman of the Heart Fund.  He served for many years on the Providence Hospital (Sisters of Charity) Board of Trustees and is now on the Board of the Medical University of South Carolina Cardiovascular Institute for Research and Prevention.

Mr. Arnold is on the Board of the Preventative Medicine Research Institute and was influential in bringing the Dr. Dean Ornish Cardiac Rehabilitation and Research Program to South Carolina.  He serves on the Board of Directors of the Kushi Macrobiotic Institute and established the Macrobiotic Center in Columbia.  Norman was a member of the Oversight Board of the Medical University of South Carolina for eight years.

Mr. Arnold was appointed by Governor McNair to the Chairmanship of the South Carolina Children’s Bureau.  He was selected by Governor West to serve as Chairman of the South Carolina Employment Training Council (CETA).  In 1983 he was committee Chairman of the Governor Riley’s Economic Task Force.  He served on the South Carolina Research Authority and Governor Edwards’ Board of Medical Education & Cancer Advisory Committee.  He was appointed by Governor Carroll Campbell in 1989 to the South Carolina Development Board.

Active in education, Mr. Arnold was a Trustee of Oglethorpe University for 20 years.  He served on the Board of Heathwood Hall Episcopal School.

In his father’s memory, Mr. Arnold established the Ben Arnold Memorial Foundation in 1965, which funds educational and health programs and built the Ben Arnold Memorial Boy’s Club in Columbia – the first such facility in South Carolina.  In 1997, the Norman J. Arnold Foundation was established.

Mr. Arnold is on the National Board of Trustees of the American Jewish Historical Society.  He was a founding Director of Project Interchange.  Since 1989 he has served on the Board of Governors’ Budget and Finance Committee of the Jewish Agency for Israel and attends meetings in Israel three times a year.  In 1998 Mr. Arnold was appointed to the United States Department of Commerce, U.S.-Israel Science & Technology Commission.

In 2000, Mr. Arnold, in cooperation with the Norman J. Arnold Foundation, made a significant contribution to finance an endowment that supports teaching, research and public education efforts for University of South Carolina’s School of Public Health, which now bears its benefactor’s name. The Norman J. Arnold School of Public Health.

Mr. Arnold is a member of the Beth Shalom Synagogue, a Trustee of the Columbia Jewish Community Center, the Jewish Welfare Federation and has served as its Campaign Chairman. In Charleston, he is a member of Synagogue Emanu-El and the Hebrew Benevolent Society.

Mr. Arnold is married to the former Gerry Sue Siegel of Atlanta, a decision he considers his best and luckiest. They have three loving sons: Ben Daniel, Michael, and David. Norman says that the only reason he goes to the office now is because he “enjoys working with his son, Ben.”

Ben D. Arnold

Ben Arnold is President of both Arnold Family Corporation and Arnold Construction Corporation and has been in the real estate field for 13 years.  He is a native of Columbia, South Carolina and Graduated from the University of Florida with degrees in Finance and Real Estate.  Ben is the Vice President of Southern Realty Corporation, which leases and manages approximately 700,000 square feet of office, warehouse and retail space in South Carolina.   Prior to the positions that he currently holds, Ben was the president of Ben D. Arnold Property Tax Consulting Company, where he represented $1,000,000,000 in assessed value of commercial and residential real estate in the Southeast.

Ben received his CCIM designation, Certified Commercial Investment Manager, in 1996 and is a licensed real estate appraiser in South Carolina and Georgia.  He is an active member of the S.C. Board of Realtors and the Urban Land Institute.  He purchased, renovated and sold 835 conventional multifamily units between 1994 and 1999 and has been active in the acquisition, development and management of numerous office, warehouse and retail properties in South Carolina, North Carolina and Florida. Throughout his professional career in development he has developed or redeveloped many projects in the Columbia area including The Depot Building, Vista Station Entertainment Complex, 700 Gervais Street Offices, Vista Lofts Apartments, Lady and Gadsden Street blocks, Windhill Distribution Center, ChemStation, the Lake Carolina Retail/Office Building, Lake Carolina Live/Work Townhomes, Parkside Center at Lake Carolina, Stephenson Offices, GranDevine Condominiums, Renaissance Plaza Condominiums, Shandon Square Subdivision and Southlake Village Retirement Community.

His civic involvement includes being on the board of the Cancer Center for Treatment and Research and the Palmetto Heath Alliance and the Jewish Federation Board in Columbia, South Carolina. Ben also serves on the Richland County Board of Assessment Control and servers on the Board of Directors for Bank Meridian, the Columbia Jewish Community Center, Trustus Theatre Capital Campaign Committee, The Columbia Jewish Day School, EdVenture Children’s Museum, Vistage International CEO Network, Engenuity SC, and the Heathwood Hall Episcopal School Board. Ben provided The Cooperative Ministry, Volunteers of America, Palmetto Aids League and the Winter Shelter to have adequate facilities to conduct business by reducing market rent to a rent that was and/or is affordable to these charities.

Bens awards include March of Dimes Honoree in 2006, two awards from the Historic Columbia Foundation including the Depot Building in 1999 for renovation and expansion of a train depot originally constructed in 1852 and the Vista Lofts in 2003 for New Construction in a Historic Context. In 2004, Ben received The State Newspaper’s Columbia Business Journal “20 Under 40” Achievement Award.  The most recent award from the Historic Columbia Foundation for Adaptive Reuse went to the redevelopment project GranDevine in 2008.