Nancy Earle Erickson

Nancy Earle Erickson peacefully departed from her earthly life yesterday (August 6), leaving from her home holding Ed’s hand and surrounded by family, this after a long struggle with Parkinson’s, and End Stage Kidney Disease.

Nancy was born in Washington D.C. on December 24, 1944, but very early in her life the family moved to Inglewood, California where her Dad would work as an aeronautical engineer and she would grow to adulthood graduating from Inglewood High School in 1962..

For college she chose University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB) based on a brochure given to her by friend. There she obtained a BA degree in Biology, one semester she even had a 4-point GPA, back when this was a rare achievement, was a member of Colonels Coeds where she was chosen as Military Ball Queen; a member of Pi Beta Phi Sorority, a Little Sister of Sigma Alpha Epsilon Fraternity, and where she met her future husband, Ed Erickson.

Following graduation, she married Ed and remained at UCSB working in the library while Ed completed his graduated studies. When Ed completed his studies they moved to Northridge, California where Nancy obtained a teaching credential from what is now called Cal State Northridge. And adopted their first child, Keith. Ed’s career took them to Minnesota where they soon settled in Woodbury, where Nancy would give birth to two addition children, Tracy, and Kurt. In this period of her life, she would focus on raising her three children, supporting them in multiple ways such as being actively involved as a teacher in their Christian education at Woodbury Lutheran and as a troop leader. Later she would take her experience as a parent to teach classes for parents of children with learning disabilities. During this period, she also gained a local reputation for being an outstanding dinner hostess.

As the kids began leaving home and Ed’s career took him overseas, the two of them developed their love for travel, which really took off following Ed’s retirement. Eventually this would take them to over 80 countries on all continents except Antarctica, over 40 cruises, and several snorkeling adventures. However, this love of travel did not interfere with her involvement in the lives of her three grandchildren, Morgan, Alex, and Elizabeth, putting strict guidelines on the timing and duration of their travels. Mixed with travel and supporting grandchildren was active involvement in book clubs, a wine group, and supporting the youth in our Church.

Although first diagnosed with Parkinson’s in 2007 she did not let this interfere with her travels making her last trip to Africa in 2018 with her granddaughter Liz. It was also in 2018 that she began her battle with End Stage Kidney disease going on parental dialysis at the very end of the year. However, she fought on with a trip to Hawaii and family trips to Mexico and Costa Rica, the latter in March of 2020 just beating the Covid shut down.

Throughout she kept a positive spirit despite being more and more impacted by these two aliments. However, on July 4, 2021, she suffered brain seizures, perhaps due to the same brain chemistry which caused her Parkinson’s and led to her departure from her earth life yesterday.

Preceded in death by her sister Joanne Hough. Survived by husband Ed, by children Keith (Jodie), Tracy Gardner (Mark) and Kurt; and three grandchildren Morgan, Alex, and Lizzie.

Celebration of life will be Friday, Aug. 13th, visitation at 10am and service at 11am at Woodbury Lutheran Church.

Contributions in Nancy's memory may be made to Michael J. Fox Foundation , https://www.michaeljfox.org/donate.

Fond memories and expressions of sympathy may be shared at www.WulffWoodburyFuneralHome.com for the Erickson family.