Stephen D. Arel

I am the Engineer at Davies High School. Steve would come to work around 6am and we would seem to meet someplace every morning. We had many great talks about multiple subjects. I was saddened when he left Davies. I am also saddened about his untimely demise.

Stephen Arel was my economics teacher in high school. He was such a patient and relatable teacher. He is one of the only teachers I truly remember having an impact on students years after they graduated. I will always remember his goofy stories he told while teaching. Even after high school, I had emailed him if I could ask him a few questions regarding my economics class in college and he was more than willing to answer my questions and cheer me on to graduate college. My thoughts and condolences to his family.

The impact that Mr. Arel had on my life was huge. As a teacher he ignited my love for economics and education. As a man he helped me see that I didn’t have to be one thing. I could explore multiple opportunities at once and be anything I wanted it to be if I was willing to do the leg work. I would not be accepting my first job in education if it weren’t for him. If I can have half of the impact that Mr. Arel did, my career will be amazing. Rest In Peace Mr. Arel, you will be missed but your impact will not be forgotten.

Arel you are the most amazing teacher and will forever have a place in my heart. Fly high

Mr. Arel was by far the best teacher I had growing up. I was lucky enough to be in his Knowledge Bowl team, and I have many fond memories of the car rides to away meets. I’ll never forget how much passion he put into his teaching, and how all of us looked forward to his class. He had many great stories to tell and taught us all valuable lessons alongside our class work.

One of my very favorite memories is that he always shared dessert skittles with us in Knowledge Bowl as a prize for getting answers correct during practice. Unfortunately, Skittles stopped making that flavor sometime during my high school years. In classic Arel style, he bought up the 5 remaining bags off of Ebay for $20 each. To my surprise, he gave me one along with his favorite G2 pens and a gift card for tacos as a graduation present. I was lucky enough to share that bag of discontinued skittles with him and my classmate one day after we both had graduated and visited him at Davies.

Arel holds a very special place in my heart, and I’m so grateful to have gotten the chance to know him. I’ll never forget all of the things he taught me.

I had the pleasure of being one of Mr. Arel’s students. He was an amazing teacher who had a profound impact on my high school and college education as well as my career. My senior year of high school Mr. Arel was my teacher for economics, A.P. Gov, and philosophy. I can say with complete confidence I would not be who I am today had Mr. Arel not been my teacher. He will be remembered.

Thank you for being a great teacher and even greater human being, Mr. Arel.

Mr. Arel is one of the kindest souls with a passion for his students, endless jokes, and wisdom to get us all through some incredibly hard classes. He is the reason I chose to do AP classes. He was that cool. Universally loved my his students.
You will be missed ❤️🌮❤️

Arel was not only my teacher, he was someone I could come to with anything. I remember all the days of sitting with him talking and laughing. He made my hard days go away with one simple laugh. Arel meant so much to me and will dearly be missed by all the students and staff at Davies High School. Thank you for everything Arel and being my best friend.❤️

Arel was the most influential teacher I and many other students had throughout our education. He will be missed and remembered by many.

Arel not only made my day at school more informative, but entertaining and fun. I loved coming to his class and learning about economics and because of that fact, I was able to reach my financial goals and have a second passion with business/finance. He will be so missed by the hundreds of kids that he impacted throughout his career including me.

So sad, my thoughts go out to his loved ones.

He had a profound impact on my understanding and appreciation for economics. One of my favorite teachers at Davies during my time there, and such a kind person.

I consider Mr. Arel to be one of the most influential people in my time as a student at Davies, and am confident that I would not be where I am today if it weren’t for him. I owe him a great deal of thanks. You will be greatly missed, thank you again so much for everything you did for me.

Sheila, David and family,

I am so sorry to see of Steve’s passing! I went to school with him in Wahpeton and he was such a nice guy. My thoughts and prayers are with you all during this time.

Sheila, Dave and family,

I’m very sad to hear this news. I cherish the time I spent growing up with Steve and working with him. I’m honored to be the “friend” in the high school painting business :). We had so many great times and memories. He will be missed dearly. Hugs Sheila

So sorry to hear of Steve’s passing. I was a high school classmate (class of ‘86). I remember him as being a really nice guy. Thank you for the detailed obituary, it was nicely written and I didn’t know of all his accomplishments. He sounded like an amazing person and role model for many. I’m sure he will be greatly missed by many. Thoughts and prayers to all of his family during this difficult time.
Sincerely, Brenda (Mohs) Armstrong

I remember Mr. Arel very fondly – I took his AP Macro class and AP Gov class and I was on his Knowledge Bowl team. I have a lot of fond memories of taking his class and staying after to practice Knowledge Bowl and getting tacos and ice cream with him on a few days. He showed us really cool things like playing a cameo role in his son’s film project. I still kept in touch after I graduated from high school and texted him occasionally, as late as May of this year, to ask him for his opinion and thoughts on developments in the news. He was a very inspiring role model for me and I appreciated his insights, advice, stories, and guidance a lot. I’m very sorry to hear of his passing, but I’ll always remember Mr. Arel very fondly.

I worked with Arel at Davies High School. He was such an amazing colleague, mentor and friend. I always enjoyed our morning chats before the chaos of the day began. Prayers to his family and friends.

Mr. Arel was a fantastic teacher. I only had him for one class at Fargo South, but I enjoyed it immensely. One of the stand-out memories of my senior year will forever be the AP Econ challenge team trip to the Federal Reserve Branch in Houston, Texas. Tacos, crayon graphs, travel issues, the whole thing was quite the experience.

Mr. Arel was a light in the halls of Davies. He taught some pretty hard classes but they were the ones that I looked forward to the most. He made a huge impact on my life and it’s clear I wasn’t even close to the only one. My mother pointed out to me one day that every time she asked me “how was school today?” I always found a way to tell her about Mr. Arel. Whether it was something I learned that day or something he said to make us laugh. His time and dedication to his students will always be admired. Thank you Mr. Arel for all you did for us.

I had the pleasure of working with Steve in the Social Studies Department at South High. I was impressed with Steve’s commitment to students while teaching them a very challenging subject. Steve’s sense of humor always made department meetings more fun than they should have been! Pre-School year bonfires, the love of tacos, and his wicked laugh are also things that I will remember about Steve Arel! Rest In Peace, Steve, you will be missed.

I am so very sorry to hear of Steve’s passing. We were in the same high school at Wahpeton. He was such a nice guy. My thoughts and prayers are with you all at this difficult time. 🙏

I wanted to teach like Steve. He could get students to learn deeply, about a TON of stuff. He volunteered time to work with my students; he was gracious and quick-witted and so smart sometimes I doubted my own intelligence.
Would that more people were like Steve.

I taught with Steve both at South and Davies. I thoroughly enjoyed his combination of wit and intelligence! And although much older than Steve, I was also a “student” of Steve’s. I watched and learned from him—I watched how he was able to maintain high standards in the classroom while also enabling each student to meet those standards. I marveled at how he would strive to connect with each student on a personal level while retaining the professional relationship. I continually saw Steve’s commitment — his many hours of prepping, grading etc and yet “moments” given to a young person were of utmost importance! Yes, Steve was an exemplary teacher who taught both the high school students and the older (his colleagues!)
I enjoyed the department get togethers and time together both in and outside of school! He could always make me laugh.
What a blessing it was to have known and worked with Steve! What an impactful man! So sorry for your loss.
Steve

I was one of his students during the 2019, 2020 school year. I was in his economics first semester of that school year. I had just moved to the area. so, I am visually impaired, and when I was visiting all my teachers to talk about accommodations before the year started, I had walked into his classroom to introduce myself to find that he had apparently researched how to make graphics accessible for a blind person, as economics is filled with a lot of graphics. I was impressed. he told me he was the “tough teacher“, and he was definitely telling the truth, but he was definitely one of the best, and he was one of my favorite teachers. I already knew I was gonna like him the first time I saw him and he showed me those graphics. economics was not my favorite class, I didn’t get the best grades, but he made the class fun every single day, and he showed his true personality while still being on topic with his class. I thought that was beautiful. Most teachers, you don’t see their personality at all, and they’re 100% serious all the time. Not him, he was a mixture of serious but also fun to be around. he definitely made his class fun and entertaining, and I will really miss him. I will never forget the ways he went above and beyond to make his class as accessible for me as possible, as economics is a very visual subject.

I am so sorry to hear of Mr. Arel’s passing. I had the opportunity to get to know Steve these past years as a para educator in his classroom. As a former educator and administrator I many times told him how much I learned from him just being in his classroom. He had a way to make everyone in his classroom feel welcome and valuable. His knowledge of his subject was appreciated and his passion for teaching students was amazing to see. You will be missed my friend. RIP

I had Mr.Arel for Econ and gov, he was the most influential teacher that I have ever had, my entire career came from Arel inspiring my interests in finance and politics.

Mr. Arel was my AP Micro teacher during my senior year in 2019-2020. I missed class often and would come in during different hours to make up what I had missed. While I’ve had teachers who get annoyed having to reteach topics and rush through them, he was always patient and taught it again just like he had a full class. He was someone I talked to frequently as Covid-19 broke out and about many other topics in those times I was in his class, and I appreciate him being open, honest, and logical about key issues. Great teacher and I always looked forward to his class! Rest In Peace, you’ll be missed Mr. Arel.

On behalf of the Economics program at Minnesota State University Moorhead, I extend our condolences to Steve’s family. Over the years, he brought hundreds of students to participate in MSUM’s Economics Challenge and his teams always did very well. It was clear that his students respected him and wanted to do well for him.
We were fortunate to hire Steve to teach part time for us; his dedication to teaching and students was evident throughout the semester. Personally, I always enjoyed our conversations with him. Our best to Steve’s family.

I’m so very sorry to hear about Steve’s passing. We taught together at South, and I have many fond memories of bumping shoulders in the “cubicle farm.” He left a strong legacy in FPS, and he will be greatly missed. Much love to you all.

Mr. Arel has been the best teacher I have had throughout all my schooling. I had him my senior year and was lucky to have him twice a day, my first class of the day and my last class of the day. I looked forward to going to school in the morning because first period was AP Gov with Arel and then I knew at the end of my day for Econ I would see him again. I will never forget how much he cared about his students, it was the simple things he did such as moving the class outside or having us sit on the floor when he read a story for Econ that could turn a whole day around. Every time I see something taco loving related I think of Mr. Arel, my friends and I always tell stories about our favorite times in his classes. He left a great impact on me and I know many others feel the same. My love and prayers go out to his family.