Arno Purington Bommer

Dr. Arno P. Bommer

Arno Purington Bommer passed away on October 27, 2025. He was born in Boston, Massachusetts in 1927, the first of Arno M. and Marian (Morse) Bommer's two children. He was raised in Medford where he was active in scouting, played cornet in the school band, and enjoyed summer trips to the Morse family farm in Brunswick, Maine.

Arno graduated from Medford High School in 1945 and immediately joined the Navy to serve in World War Two. He was training as an x-ray technician with the Navy in San Diego when the war ended.

Arno attended Tufts College and then Tufts Dental School. Upon graduation, he went into practice, working with his father at an office in Revere. He also taught students as a staff clinician at Tufts Dental School and served on the school’s admissions committee. Some of his former students became life-long friends. Arno was elected as president of Massachusetts Dental Society in 1971, following in his father’s footsteps.

Arno met his wife, Marilyn, as a patient sitting in his dental chair. They were married in 1957. Marilyn and Arno raised their three children, Elizabeth, Arno, and Allan, in Lynnfield, Massachusetts. The family attended Centre Congregational Church and enjoyed regular summer trips to Sebec Lake in Dover-Foxcroft, Maine.

Arno had many diverse hobbies. He enjoyed traveling to antique-car shows and parades. Until his final days, he could still identify the makes and models and many antique cars. He also enjoyed trains and took many trips for railroad enthusiasts, bringing along his sons in the 1970s. He built a wooden kit motorboat in the 1950s that his family used through the 1980s. He enjoyed waterskiing on one ski behind the boat until he was 69. Another unusual hobby of his was banking; he served as Chairman of the Revere Federal Savings Bank.

In recent years, Arno and Marilyn lived at Brooksby Village in Peabody, Massachusetts. They enjoyed traveling near and far with their daughter, Beth. They made regular winter trips to Tarpon Springs, Florida, where they played golf and cards with friends and relatives. In summer, they visited their sons’ (Allan and Arno) cabin on Long Lake in Naples, Maine, which they had also helped to build. Arno also greatly enjoyed helping to raise two granddaughters, Natasha and Tatyana.

He is predeceased by his wife, Marilyn, and his sister, Barbara, and is survived by his children, Elizabeth, Arno (and wife Erin), and Allan (and wife Crystal), and his granddaughters, Natasha, Alyssa, Tatyana, and Amelia.

At Arno’s request, there will be no public service. Arrangements were in the care of the McDonald Funeral Home, Wakefield.

He will be missed by all who knew him.