Posted by Cathy Gowdy on Monday, October 01, 2007 at 14:07:14 :
Marin Independent Journal
Sunday, September 20, 1992
ELIZABETH ARNOLD
Helped crack enemy code
Elizabeth “Bibbs” Arnold of Los Altos, a mathematician, environmentalist and wildlife advocate who helped crack the Japanese code during World War II, died Friday, Sept. 18, 1992, at her Los Altos Hills home of lung cancer. She was 76.
A native of San Francisco, Dr. Arnold was reared in Marin County and was the oldest grandchild of Rep. William Kent, for whom the city of Kentfield was named.
The daughter of a prominent San Francisco attorney, Eugene Arnold, she attended the Katherine Branson School in Ross and graduated first in her class in 1932. The school later named a day in her honor after she was elected to Phi Beta Kappa at Vassar College in her junior year.
After graduating from Vassar in 1937, Dr. Arnold earned her Ph.D. in mathematics from the University of California at Berkeley in 1941.
During World War II, Dr. Arnold was recruited by the Navy and worked on a team of cryptographers cracking Japanese codes, for which she received a Meritorious Civilian Service Award.
In the 1960s, Dr. Arnold worked on machine language translation at Lockheed Missiles and Space Co. Inc.
After her retirement in 1969, Dr. Arnold helped establish a recycling center in Los Altos and worked with Wildlife Rescue, helping injured animals.
Dr. Arnold is survived by her husband of 46 years, Dr. William Francis Whitmore of Los Altos; four sons, Charles Whitmore of Washington, D.C., Edward Whitmore of San Francisco, Thomas Whitmore of Oakland and Peter Whitmore of Victoria, B.C. Also surviving are her brothers, George Stanleigh Arnold of Kentfield, Peter Arnold of Grass Valley and Anthony Arnold of Novato.
A private family memorial service is today in Los Altos Hills.
The family suggests memorial contributions to Wildlife Rescue Inc., 4000 Middlefield Road, Palo Alto, 94303.
Arrangements are by the San Francisco Neptune Society.
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