Arvel Merlin Stevens was born July 5, 1918, to Merlin David Stevens and Sarah Maud Jacobson in Montpelier as the oldest of four children, a brother DeVerl and sisters Jeanine and Marlene. His father was a steam locomotive engineer for the Union Pacific Railroad operating from Montpelier through Wyoming. He liked to tell stories about how fast and efficiently his dad (Merlin) could drive a train to make up time.

Arvel had many fond memories of his childhood. Some of his favorite stories involved his big dog that would pull him on a sleigh around his home in Montpelier. Arvel adored his brother, DeVerl, and liked to go to dances where DeVerl played his trumpet in the dance band. In World War II DeVerl was killed in action in the Battle of the Bulge, which caused Arvel great sorrow for many years.

Arvel graduated from high school and attended one year at Utah State. He got a job as a signalman for the Union Pacific Railroad and he worked as a railroad towerman until he retired in the 1980s.

Arvel met LaRue H. Roberts (who was from Star Valley) while she was teaching school in Montpelier and they got married. Arvel worked in eastern Idaho, then they moved to Renton, Wash., to switch trains carrying war freight. He liked the mild Seattle weather. They rented for a while then they built a house in the Highland Park neighborhood of Seattle where they lived the rest of his life. He worked in Georgetown for most of his career operating the switches and signaling the trains where Union Pacific crossed the Burlington Northern tracks.

They had six children, Merleen, Steve, Richard, Mark, Christine and Alan.

For 30 years Arvel kept his 1950 Buick operating by doing his own maintenance. Arvel loved to tell stories about the railroad and the engineers who knew him well. Sometimes when he drove by a train he would honk his horn and they would recognize his car and honk back.

Arvel died Dec. 14, 2010, at home at the age of 92.