Dr. Douglas Arnold, the recently retired Pleasant Valley School District's superintendent, was cleaning out his office when he came across an obituary he had saved. He was struck anew at the coincidences of life he had felt back in 2008 when he first saw the obituary for Robert R. Koehler, formerly of Saylorsburg.

Bertha (Romascavage) Koehler gave birth to Robert on June 2, 1952 at Monroe County General Hospital (now Pocono Medical Center) in East Stroudsburg.Grace (Bond) Arnold, delivered a baby girl, Cynthia Arnold, also on June 2 at the same hospital.Bertha and Grace shared the same room and the infants shared their first days of life together.The families became very good friends."Many a card game was played between the Koehlers and the Arnolds over the years," Arnold.Raymond Koehler, Robert's father, was the Arnold men's barber.Robert (Bobby) and Cynthia began school at Chestnuthill Elementary and were classmates all 13 years.In 1970, Cynthia was named Pleasant Valley High School's valedictorian and Bobby was the salutatorian.Unfortunately, Cynthia's life was cut short. She was a junior at East Stroudsburg University, where she was majoring in Spanish with a 4.0 average. She studied abroad in Spain and when she returned, she became ill. Her family believes she contracted a virus that attacked her heart. Tragically, she passed away May 4, 1973 at the age of 20, never to realize the great potential she would have been capable of.Bobby, who Arnold describes as quiet and reserved, had a legendary work ethic who paid great attention to detail and was very task oriented."He was brilliant," Arnold says.Koehler worked in chemical research for Battelle in Houston, Texas and then as a primary patent examiner for the U.S. Commerce Department in the Patent and Trademark Division of the Federal Patent Office in Arlington, Va., retiring in 2005. He passed away June 11, 2008 at the age of 56."What struck me about them was they were born the same day, in the same hospital, grew up to be friends, and both were the two smartest students in school in the same class at PV," says Dr. Arnold.Just one of life's coincidences or of great divine?Chestnuthill Township is celebrating its 250th anniversary this September. Ross, Polk and Eldred were all at one time a part of Chestnuthill Township. If you have any little odd bits and pieces about the West End's history, people or places that you would like to share with our readers, contact Linda Koehler at

lkoehler@tnonline.com or call (610) 826-9641.