Francis Arne Meekin was born on August 30th, 1932 in Rawlins, WY. His parents were Thomas Meekin and Clara Otilje Meekin (Kirkeeng). He was their 4th son and the first born in a hospital. Thomas emigrated to the US as a teenager and worked at the oil refinery in Sinclair, WY until his retirement. Clara, a 1919 graduate of the La Crosse Normal School worked as a school teacher. Clara grew up on a farm in Wisconsin. Her parents emigrated from Norway.

Arne grew up in Sinclair, WY, spending time outdoors with his older brothers Bernard, Thomas, and Patrick, and camping in the nearby Snowy Mountain Range. They enjoyed all kinds of good old fashioned fun that he loved to recall, including games such as kick the can, capture the flag, "hot butt" and all other kinds of shenanigans. He would emphasize how grateful he was to have grown up without television or other distracting technology, which gave him a natural sense of play and strong values about what is truly important in life.

Arne graduated as Valedictorian of his Rawlins High School class in 1950. He then attended Carnegie Tech (Pittsburg, PA) graduating in 1954 with a degree in Chemistry. He was accepted to Marquette University Medical School (Milwaukee, WI) and graduated in 1958 with an M.D. degree.

After working as a physician in Milwaukee, Denver, and Seattle, Arne met Janet Kay Bonawits at a Catholic Alumni Club event at Hidden Valley Guest Ranch in Cle Elum, WA and they were married in Seattle on Nov. 28, 1964 at St. James Cathedral.

Arne and Janet moved to Spokane in 1966, when Arne began his career at Holy Family Hospital as the founder and medical director of the Regional Cancer Center. It was the first hospital based radiation treatment center established in Spokane. He also created the school of Radiation Therapy Technology at Holy Family Hospital and was its Director and a Clinical Instructor. He continued to work full-time at Holy Family Hospital until his retirement in 1997. As Director, he served as consultant to facilities in Washington, Idaho, Montana, and after retirement he stepped in to provide vacation coverage for those physicians for another five years.

Arne loved the outdoors, and was often happiest hiking, camping, and fishing in various locales from Montana to the California coast. He traveled regularly to visit and vacation with his brothers, and his children, and all of their families. Arne was clearly an extremely devoted and loving family man, who is unanimously cherished and adored by all of his family. His clever sense of humor, easy and affable manner and remarkable patience, kindness, wisdom, and compassion are already greatly missed.

He loved playing the piano for his family, attending church, including participating in full Latin masses daily at St. Francis Xavier. He was a man of deep faith and an active member of St. Thomas More Parish for over 50 years. After he retired, for many years he volunteered with Second Harvest Food bank by delivering meals to homebound individuals, and drove people to their medical appointments. His wife Janet of over 57 years sums it up best, "Arne is a truly good man, a good soul."

Arne was preceded in death by his parents, and his older brothers Bernard and Thomas. He is survived by his wife Janet, his son Kirk Francis (Nan) of Yellow Springs, OH; Brien Thomas (Julie) of Lexington, KY; Joleen Elizabeth (Jonathan) Fixley of Omaha, NE; Molly Kathleen (Steve) of San Diego, CA;, Darren-Peter Lawrence(Kerry) of Los Angeles, CA; and brother Patrick Claire Meekin of Minneapolis, MN; several nieces and nephews and 8 grandchildren (Jude, Lilly, Clare, Evelyn, Gini, Grace, Cordelia & Conrad).