Arsenio Sanchez collection

]The son of Spanish immigrants Bernardo and Francisca (Hernandez) Sanchez, Arsenio Modesto Sanchez was born February 24, 1916 in the Florida cigar-making community of West Tampa. Growing up in the bustling cigar city, Arsenio was immersed in the rich, multi-cultural ambience of its Spanish, Cuban and Italian immigrant population. Graduating from Plant High School in 1937, he trained at Brewster Vocational School, and then worked as a welder for the Tampa Shipbuilding Company. In 1942 he enlisted in the U.S. Navy, serving in the navy’s Seabee construction battalions in Alaska and at Iwo Jima. Mustering out of the navy in 1945, he entered the University of Florida in Gainesville. He completed a bachelor’s degree in bacteriology in 1951, and shortly after graduation married West Tampa native Mary Greco. The couple remained in Gainesville, where Arsenio worked for several years as a research assistant in the university’s Sanitary Research Laboratory. In 1955, Arsenio became an inspector of fruits and vegetables for the U.S. Department of Agriculture, a position he held for twenty-three years until his retirement in 1978. In 1982, he started a ten-year career with the West Tampa Convention Center. Sanchez wrote his first historical article, “Incentives Helped to Build West Tampa,” in 1985, and thereafter played an increasingly prominent role in local history activities. Arsenio served for six years on the Tampa Historical Society’s board of directors and was a frequent contributor to the society’s journal, the Sunland Tribune. He contributed articles to Tampa Bay History magazine, La Gaceta, and the Tampa Tribune as well. Arsenio played a major role in the initiative to place markers at historic sites in West Tampa, in the restoration of Tampa’s historic Oaklawn–St. Louis Cemetery, and in planning for West Tampa’s centennial celebration in 1995. A charter member of the Ybor City Museum Society, he was the organization’s official historian and served on its board of directors. Becoming interested in the history of early West Florida, in 1998 he published a book on the subject, West Florida: A Short History. In 2001, the Tampa Historical Society presented Arsenio with its D. B. McKay Award in recognition of his outstanding contributions to the study and preservation of Tampa’s historic heritage. Arsenio M. Sanchez died at age 89 on August 16, 2005. He was survived by his wife Mary, daughter Sharon, and two grandchildren. Froelich, Janis D. “Local historian documents details of West Tampa’s past.” Tampa Tribune, South Tampa Edition. March 31, 2001, p. 2. Guzzo, Paul. “Silhouettes: Arsenio Sanchez.” La Gaceta, June 22, 2001, p. 10. Maul, Derek. “A Living History: Arsenio Sanchez is a Compendium of West Tampa’s Past." West Tampa Shopper, June 2, 2004, p. 5. Sanchez, Arsenio M. Collection Sanchez, Arsenio M. "West Florida: A Short History." [S.l. : S.n.] 1998.

Note written by PEC, n.d.