Orson L. Arvin was my grandfather. His life was one of healing — early on from injuries acquired racing cars and motorcycles, and later in the lives of others as a physician and foreign missionary. 

The period he spent living in Jackson Hole was instrumental in guiding his career path.  He was recently married and started out working in the movie industry in Los Angeles, and later in heavy construction and on ski patrol in Jackson. The chance discovery of a crow with a broken wing and the experience of tending to it inspired him to ask his wife Bettye, a nurse, if she thought he could ever be a doctor, to which she replied — “yes”.

He had received his GED while in military service in Korea. They returned to Kentucky where Orson completed pre-med studies and was admitted to the University of Kentucky College of Medicine at age 38. As a senior he received the award for outstanding work in Obstetrics and Gynecology, and went on to deliver hundreds of babies as a general practitioner in family practice, in rural Kentucky.

I never met him. He was retired from full time practice and had worked for several years in medical missions when he passed away in service at the age of 72 in Tanzania, Africa. I was born 5 months after his passing. Fortunately, he was a bit of a hoarder and I have only begun to discover him through seemingly endless documents, letters and photographs that were left behind and preserved by my family.

A recent trip to Jackson awakened my interest in his archives and the Kodachrome slides I had been shown growing up. This collection of images was created by reviewing thousands of intermingled slides created over his lifetime of world travels. After high resolution scanning most were in need of professional digital restoration to faithfully restore their original clarity and colors. My hope is that these images can provide a glimpse into the history and mid-century life of Jackson Hole, and illustrate the beauty and rich culture my grandfather experienced.

Emma C. Arvin, FNP Vanderbilt University ‘26