A life insurance job brought Ed Arnold to Atlanta in 1976. Within a few years, though, his focus shifted to a different type of life insurance — a global policy focused on the survival of the planet and the health of humankind.

"He got out of the insurance rat race because he was trying to rethink what he wanted to do with his life," said his partner of 14 years, Betsy Rivard, of Atlanta.

Family photo

Ed Arnold, shown here at the Martin Luther King Day march in Washington, D.C., in January, was a longtime Atlanta peace advocate.

"He was very concerned about the way the world was going and that nuclear annihilation was a possibility," she said. "And his concern about that never died."

In the 1980s, Mr. Arnold began working with Physicians for Social Responsibility and became executive director of its Georgia chapter. He drew a modest salary, worked out of his home office and volunteered what was left of his waking hours to a slew of organizations, including Atlanta WAND, Nuclear Watch South and the Georgia Air Coalition.

"Ed was just amazing, a remarkably selfless man," said Dr. Erica Frank of Atlanta, president of Physicians for Social Responsibility. "He was incapable of concentrating on anything mundane because there was so much that had to be fixed in the world."

"Whenever any green organization in Atlanta called, Ed was there — bringing the health message to environmental issues and peace and justice issues."

Edward David Arnold, 69, of Atlanta died of leukemia Saturday at Piedmont Hospital. The body was cremated. The memorial service is 2:30 p.m. today at the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Atlanta. Wages & Sons Funeral Home, Stone Mountain Chapel, is in charge of arrangements.

Mr. Arnold spread his message in the halls of Congress and on the street corners of Atlanta. He would testify at official hearings in Washington, then load young activists into his van to protest at the Savannah River Site. He battled environmental racism and encouraged faith-based groups to acknowledge their stewardship of the earth.

"He was the consummate networker who could get people together from different disciplines who didn't know each other," Ms. Rivard said. And, she said, he saw connections where others didn't and understood how one issue impacts another.

"Ed was always present whenever we were trying to make things happen in the peace community in Atlanta," said his friend Bobbie Wrenn Banks, of Decatur, a member of Atlanta WAND.

"I always felt better when he was around because he helped me remember what was really important about what we were doing to build a more peaceful world," she said. "That old phrase about how we need to be the change we wish to see in the world, he was all about that."

So much so, Ms. Rivard said, that he had a hard time turning it off. Sometimes Mr. Arnold tackled fix-up projects at the mountain cabin the couple shared, and he was heavily involved in his church's recent renovation.

"But one of the things I would tease him about is that he didn't spend a lot of time doing leisurely things because he felt like he needed to make sure he was using his time in a constructive way," Ms. Rivard said.

"Just getting him to go to a movie was pretty difficult," she said. "Unless it had a theme about world peace or the environment. Then he'd be there in a nanosecond."

Even in his hospital bed, she said, Mr. Arnold balked at being read a passage of fiction instead of his usually heady fare. Still, he was more of a softy than he liked to admit.

"He would be embarrassed at how easily he would cry," she said. "Sentimental things, all kinds of things touched him. Even at a movie that he was probably dragged to, he'd be the one crying."

Survivors other than his partner include a daughter, Elizabeth Arnold, of Hyattsville, Md.; a son, Bruce Arnold, of Flowery Branch; a sister, Kathy Ervin, of Vinton, Iowa; and a grandson.