Plush Mills residents Amy and Fred Arimoto are native Californians who, as young adults, were interred in a camp in Colorado during World War II.  They married at the camp, and remember life in the barracks as very primitive and monotonous.  Fred became a high school chemistry teacher during this difficult time.

When the war ended, the couple moved to Illinois where Fred earned his Ph.D. at the University of Chicago.  They moved to the East Coast in 1951 when Fred began a career as a chemist with DuPont, and where their three children were born.  Amy is a creative knitter, and she also became skilled at making stained glass.  Fred came to share that interest, and the couple became self-taught stained glass artisans.  Fred later crafted stained glass windows for the Arimotos’ church in Newark, Our Redeemer Lutheran Church.

We recently displayed many examples of the Arimotos’ work in our lobby…just another example of the talent that abounds among our residents.