Armed with a degree in Business Administration, with a major in Accounting, Arvin decided instead to go into the family cabinetmaking business. He got his first computer in 1981, and used computers extensively in bidding and construction takeoffs. In 1992, after discovering Windows 3.1, he began writing a computer column for a trade magazine. When Microsoft Access came to the scene in the fall of that year, he was hooked. He returned to college, studied programming and networking, and in 1994 wrote his first commercial database. In 1996, Arvin became a full-time database developer.

Today he is married and the father of twin sons. Arvin is active in the Microsoft newsgroups, and maintains the Access Web http://www.mvps.org/access, an Access download site on his domain (http://www.datastrat.com), owns and is webmaster of http://www.accessmvp.com, and several client websites. A Microsoft Certified Professional and Microsoft MVP, Arvin writes freelance technology articles, is an author of a book on Access, leads the  Access, Office, and Security, Special Interest Groups, and is the President of the Central Florida Computer Society. Arvin works as a consultant, and is Chief Database Architect of a software technology firm in Orlando, FL.