Michael "Mike" Andrew Arther

Mike Arther, a servant of Christ, died in the faith and with the hope of the resurrection on June 1, 2026 at Tanner Villa Rica. He was 76 years old.

Mike was born November 16, 1949, in Gadsden, Alabama to Samuel Lewis Arther and Emma Susan "Sue" Pridgen Arther, both of whom preceded him in death. He grew up in Alabama before his family moved to Texas, where he graduated from John Marshall High School in San Antonio. He returned to Alabama for college, earning his degree from Jacksonville State University.

Mike married Pamela "Pam" Miller on October 27, 1973, and the two built a home and a life together over the next fifty-two years. They raised their daughter Jennifer and son Bart, and made their longtime church home at Lithia Springs Methodist Church beginning in 1987.

After a brief stint as a police officer with the Glencoe, Alabama Police Department in the early 1970s, Mike began the career that would define his working life. In 1974 he hired on with the Seaboard Coast Line Railroad as a project engineer in design and construction. Through the merger that formed CSX Transportation, he gave the railroad thirty-five years before retiring in 2009. He took the measure of that career not by what he built but by who came home from it: "Everyone came and went home the same way they came to work," as he put it on his last day at work.

At Lithia Springs Methodist, Mike served in nearly every capacity a layman can serve — Board of Trustees, Finance Committee, and Staff-Parish Relations. For nearly thirty years he and others cooked breakfast for the congregation, a Sunday morning fixture so reliable that he was known simply as the church's "biscuit man." Through the Northwest Georgia Walk to Emmaus he served on multiple teams and sponsored pilgrims into the community.

Mike's faith was not a Sunday-morning matter. He read his Bible, kept his promises, and loved his neighbor in deed and not in word only. He never met a stranger and could find common ground with anyone. He supported and cared for his family far beyond what was asked of him, and gave generously whenever the chance came to help.

Mike was a fifty-year Master Mason, holding dual emeritus membership in Glencoe Lodge No. 846 and Douglasville Lodge No. 289. He pulled for the Alabama Crimson Tide and the Jacksonville State University Gamecocks through the good years and the lean ones. He hunted deer, pulled a camper anywhere the road would take him, took cruises with Pam, kept a soft spot for the railroad even after he left it, and chased his ancestors through county records and family Bibles, a pursuit he cheerfully called "digging up dead people."

He was preceded in death by his parents, Sam and Sue Arther, and by his brother, John "Johnny" Samuel Arther.

He is survived by his wife of fifty-two years, Pam Arther; his daughter Jennifer Leigh Arther Stokesbary and her husband Calvin David Stokesbary; his son Andrew Bart Arther and his wife Jessica Maria Arther; his brother Morris Lewis Arther and his wife Donna Taylor Arther; his sister-in-law Glenda Arther; and his four grandchildren: Holly Grace Stokesbary, Patrick Anthony Stokesbary, Emma Susan Stokesbary, and Samuel Winston Arther.

Visitation will be on Friday, June 5, 2026 from 5 P.M. to 7 P.M. at Jones-Wynn Funeral Home and Crematory of Douglasville.

A service will be held at Lithia Springs Methodist Church, Lithia Springs, GA on Saturday, June 6, 2026, with visitation from 1 P.M. to 2 P.M. with service to follow.

Interment will be held at Collinsville Cemetery in Collinsville, AL on Saturday, June 13 at 2 P.M. EDT / 1 P.M. CDT.

In lieu of flowers, the family requests memorial donations be made to the Lithia Springs HVAC Campaign at https://my.lithia.giving. 

Message of condolence may be sent to the family at www.jones-wynn.com. Jones-Wynn Funeral Home and Crematory of Douglasville is in charge of the arrangements. 770-942-2311.