Arthur Raymond Eckels was a faculty member of the College of Engineering at North Carolina State University from 1949 to 1983 and a community activist who campaigned for the continued preservation of Raleigh, North Carolina's Pullen Park from 1972 to 1974.

Eckels was born on November 16, 1919, in New Haven, Connecticut. He earned a Bachelors of Science from the University of Connecticut in 1941, a Masters of Science in Electrical Engineering from Harvard in 1942 and a Doctor of Engineering degree from Yale University in 1949. During his undergraduate studies Eckels worked for Pratt and Whitney Aircraft Corporation and the United Illuminating Company over the summers of 1940 and 1941. Eckels served as an electrical engineer in the United States Navy Department in Washington, D.C., from 1942 to 1943. From 1943 to 1946 Eckels was engaged as a marine engineer, United States Maritime Service. In 1960 Eckels was a Fulbright Lecturer at the National Chio-Tung University in Taiwan, he was visiting Professor at Japan National Defense College in 1964, and from 1969 to 1970 served on the engineering faculty at the University of Kabul under the Afghan-American Program supported by the United States Agency for International Development.

Eckels' honorary and professional affiliations include membership in the American Association of University Professors, the Connecticut Christmas Tree Growers Association, the Sleeping Giant Park Association, Friends of Scandinavia, US Servas, the American Institute of Electrical Engineers, the Institute of Radio Engineers, the American Society for Engineering Education, Tau Beta Pi and Gamma Chi Epsilon. He was also a member of the United Church of Christ in Raleigh, North Carolina.