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Delbert “Pete” Erickson was an avid outdoorsman who moved with his wife from Washington state to Petersburg, Alaska, in the 1960s in search of adventure and opportunity.
The young couple’s journey north led to them becoming part of the fabric of Petersburg, a small island fishing community with Norwegian roots. Erickson, who’d dropped out of high school in his native Washington state, arrived in Alaska as a 23-year-old apprentice carpenter and went on to build many of his neighbors’ homes.
In his 40s, after shattering his leg in a fall from the roof of a building he was repairing, Erickson left the carpentry trade and opened a plumbing business that he ran for the next three decades. The Ericksons lived in Petersburg for the majority of their more than 50-year marriage and raised two children who were born there, says his son, Arlan Erickson, who also goes by the name Pete.
The 76-year-old Erickson, who had chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and other issues stemming from a heart attack about three years ago, died March 16 in a Washington state hospital after contracting COVID-19. His is believed to be the first recorded death of an Alaska resident from the coronavirus.
The younger Pete Erickson, a tugboat captain who lives with his wife, Kris, and their adult children in Camano Island, north of Seattle, said friends remembered his dad’s big smile, rosy cheeks, and constant generosity. He was an active member of the local Elks and Moose lodges and was named “Elk of the Year” for his volunteer service, which included laying a new tile floor and cooking for community members.
“He was one of these guys who could do anything,” his son says. When a friend suggested he ought to buy a boat, he replied that he would rather just build one—and he did, constructing a 26-foot cabin cruiser from plywood and fiberglass, which he put to good use catching salmon. He loved fishing and hunting.
“He could fix engines, he knew how to weld, he spent so much time building houses that he was, well, he was brilliant at it,” his son says.
In an interview, the younger Erickson detailed the last two harrowing months of his father’s life.
After spending a week in the hospital in Petersburg in February for treatment of ongoing heart issues, his father was taken by medevac to Virginia Mason Hospital in Seattle. It was just his latest medevac trip since the heart attack; he even joked about collecting frequent flier miles.
When he arrived in Washington in February, it was early in the U.S. outbreak of coronavirus, and it never occurred to the family that their patriarch may have contracted COVID-19. He wasn’t showing classic symptoms of the virus, such as fever or cough. In any case, the treatment he received for the fluid around his heart seemed to help, and he was briefly transferred to a short-term rehabilitation facility. But when his son went to visit him, he saw his father had taken a turn for the worse.
“It went from one day talking about (recovery) to the next, he was just crashing,” his son says.
Erickson was taken by ambulance to a hospital near the rehab facility in Federal Way, Washington, where a doctor covering a shift finally asked why the doctors caring for him hadn’t yet done a COVID-19 test. The test was done and Erickson was moved to an airlocked isolation room to await results, his son says. Four days later, as he continued to worsen, the test came back positive.
“It took the breath out of me,” his son says.
For weeks prior, the family assumed Erickson would recover and return to Petersburg, spending his remaining months—or years, if he was lucky—with his wife, Marilyn, who is 74. She was not well enough to make the trip to Washington to be with her husband during his treatment. But there was talk of getting the whole family together again in Alaska this summer for a fish feed, a feast of old-style Norwegian lutefisk (a type of white fish) and boiled potatoes with butter.
Instead, Erickson’s son, daughter-in-law and grandchildren put on masks, gowns, and gloves. One by one, they spent a few minutes sitting with him to say goodbye. Within a few minutes of the last visit, Erickson died, according to his son.
It’s unclear where Erickson contracted COVID-19, but his son suspects it was while receiving treatment at Virginia Mason Hospital, the first facility he was sent to. Virginia Mason Hospital confirmed in a March 1 statement that it was caring for a patient who had been diagnosed with COVID-19.
See more stories of the lives lost to COVID-19
The younger Erickson later learned that he also tested positive for the virus but has extremely mild symptoms, he said. He and his wife, Kris, are quarantining with their children at their home, located on a wooded 5-acre property outside of town.
In a public Facebook post, the younger Erickson admitted that before his family’s experience with COVID-19, he had viewed the response to the outbreak as overblown. But after losing his father to the disease and contracting it himself, his views changed. He used his post to warn others who have brushed off social distancing policies to learn from his example.
“I still believe there’s a lot of hysteria and BS out there, but after losing my dad to the virus I have changed my mind about the virus itself,” he wrote. “The panic is ridiculous, the virus is real. Stay away from your elderly family and friends. This will kill them. If you [are] on immunosuppressive drugs, (like I am) talk to your doctor about stopping them. Get outside in the sunshine, isolate yourself from others.”
Erickson is survived by his wife, Marilyn; four children, Arlan “Pete” Erickson, Tammy Erickson, Laurie Erickson and Robert Carlson; seven grandchildren; and four great-grandchildren.
