By Kyle Marksteiner
Lakeview’s Parkhouse Village played host to a very special celebration in August, as community members threw a 75th-anniversary party for Arch and Neldea Slate.
At the diamond anniversary, friends and co-workers lauded the Slates for their close friendship and decades of volunteer work. Friends Mike and Pat Veilleux dedicated a poem to the Slates, and Mike read a rundown of what life was like when the Slates first tied the knot in 1949. (Spoiler alert: prices were lower.)
Arch and Neldea met at Doane College in Iowa in 1945. He was a V5 Navel Cadet, and she was a freshman. They were engaged two years later and married in 1949.
Arch held various jobs in Colorado, Missouri, Michigan, and Illinois before spending 19 years with the Natural Gas Pipeline of America. He then spent nearly a decade with the U.S. Treasury Department and another nine years with the U.S. Department of Defense. Their three children were born between 1951 and 1954. Neldea then went to work as an educator in 1957.
The Slates were living in Las Cruces when Arch retired in 1989. They both taught at a local college for several years but later relocated to Tyone, a small town near Silver City. Wanting to move somewhere where they would receive high-quality care, they relocated to Carlsbad in 2007.
“We have really enjoyed Carlsbad,” Neldea said. “We’ve found it to be extremely kind to senior citizens. This is a place where strangers will help you with change when you are counting money at the store or even offering money—things like that. People are just very kind here. This is a very friendly town.”
After moving to Carlsbad, Arch volunteered a great deal of his time with the Carlsbad Community Foundation and was in charge of the Foundation’s Lifeline program. Mike Antiporda, the Foundation’s Director, said Arch was a harder worker, as a volunteer, than many paid employees. Antiporda wore a tie to work on his first day at the Foundation, he recalled, but Arch politely declined to do the same.
“I always considered them family,” Antiporda said.
Arch received a special recognition award from the Foundation in 2015, when he retired at age 87. The Slates have kept busy, however, helping their neighbors in their Parkhouse.
Margaret McClure spoke about how welcoming the Slates were to her when she moved into Parkview a dozen years ago.
“I didn’t know what I was going to find,” she said, gesturing to the couple. “I found this.”
After a short ceremony, the Slates and their guests each enjoyed a celebratory slice of cake.
“My wife and I were just pleasantly surprised by the turnout, and we were very pleased for being able to celebrate our 75th,” Arch concluded.
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