Birth date: Feb 18, 1954 Death date: Feb 9, 2026
Arlen Stucky, 71, of Cement City, MI, passed away on Monday, February 9, 2026, at his home. Arlen was born on February 18, 1954, in Goessel, KS, to Walter and Ruby (Myers) Stucky. He graduated from Hillsboro High School. Arlen ma Read Obituary
Nate, Sorry to hear of your dads passing away.
Best memory was of banging shoulders with him on the Basketball court.
Memories of Arlen include the fact that he liked sports, in fact, so much that a career in that direction was on his mind. After graduating from high school, he went to Bible school for a year. Then, he started moving in the sports direction, but he experienced dissatisfaction. He concluded that, that wasn’t God’s direction for him, not that he couldn’t like sports or participate in sports, but he wasn’t to give his life to sports. He returned to Bible school where he learned more important lessons for life and met Debie who became his wife. Later, in my life journeys, which took me near the area where they lived a number of times, his “big sister” was always welcome, and he made sure that I knew that. Several times were spent with them as a family that came to include a son and a daughter. I was grateful for the times I had with each family member in those early years and a few that we’ve had since then. In the past few years, he looked forward to and really enjoyed having phone conversations together when that was possible, which included various topics; but the thing that always rose to the top in the conversations was that God and His way was most important to him. In our recent and last conversation, he quoted John 14:6 saying that he’s trusting Jesus in that: “Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.”
-Kathy Stucky
Most of my childhood memories of Arlen were about food or sports. He took pride in how clean his cob was when we had corn on the cob. On the odd occasion that we had store-bought pot pies for supper, he would talk me out of half of mine, because I surely couldn’t eat all of that!
When we played football, I probably never could even tag him, but he would catch me, swing me around and throw me on the lawn. If we played basketball, I would rebound while he practiced his lay-ups. Then there were the times, he would take me along as his ping-pong partner to challenge Hett’s in doubles. Quite an honor for a kid sister!
Arlen & Debi always had an open door. If I found a ride to Michigan over a holiday, I was welcome to spend it with them. If we were in the area, we always loved to stop. What a day that will be when we see them again! So thankful we have that assurance!
The past few years, since being back in the States, I’ve enjoyed having phone conversations from time to time with Arlen. We covered a variety of topics—from cars and tractors to world events, health and end-time prophecy.
Whenever I asked about the grandkids, he was always ready to tell about their participation in sports. Arlen loved sports competitions in high school where he excelled in basketball and track. He was quite competitive so enjoyed those challenges.
Speaking of challenges reminds me of an unforgettable fishing trip that he and I went on when we were teenagers. The fishing spot we were headed for was only a couple of miles from home. But, to get there we had to follow a path along the edge of a field. It had rained the day before, so there was still water in the tracks. We were in Dad’s old work car, a 1954 Chevy that had been overhauled three times, I think, but still ran strong. The tires were bald, so we opted to go beside the tracks where the ground looked dry.
But alas! There was mud underneath, that balled up on the tires. And there we sat! Arlen thought for a minute about walking home to get the tractor until he looked out the door and saw the mud. He changed his mind, and instead, revved the engine and ran the car through the gears. With the speedometer reading 70, he was burning rubber under the mud! The car began to inch forward and after some time burning rubber he managed to get it back into the tracks and we were able to finally make it to our fishing spot.
But, no sooner had we thrown our lines out and it started to rain. So we packed it up and high-tailed it back out of there! This time we stayed in the tracks through the water and made it back home safe and sound.
My most important memory of my brother Arlen. When we were kids, Arlen and I shared a bedroom. It was the north room upstairs. The coldest room in the house to sleep in. So we had many late night night discussions, which usually ended up with me talking and Arlen asleep. One night the subject was eternal salvation. We agreed that Jesus blood was the payment for our sins. And Arlen said that he remembered one day when he accepted Jesus as his savior. And I thought - wait - how can he know that he didn't sin again after that. I had been struggling with not being able to make it a whole day without doing, saying, or thinking something wrong. So I was getting saved every night. I thought I better talk to mom about this. Because I couldn't accept that my little brother had more spiritual understanding than I had. So after talking to mom I found out that Arlen was right. Once we accept Jesus as our Savior, God the Father holds us in his hand and we are eternally his son. John 10:28 says "I give them eternal life and they shall never perish; no one can snatch them out of my hand." If we sin again while we are in his hand, he gave us 1 John 1:9 We can confess our sin to get back in fellowship with him.
