State Sen. Doug Ericksen was remembered as a devoted family man, a devout Christian and a dedicated legislator in a funeral service Wednesday, Dec. 29, at Christ the King Community Church in Bellingham.
Ericksen, 52, died Dec. 17 after a five-week battle with COVID-19.
"He was someone who represented us all," said the Rev. Grant Fishbook of Christ the King, who officiated the service with about 250 family and friends attending.
"We hold on to the hope of Doug's faith today," Fishbook said.
Ericksen represented the 42nd Legislative District that includes northern Bellingham and northern Whatcom County for more than two decades — from 1998-2010 in the state House and from 2010-2021 in the state Senate.
Few mourners wore facemasks to prevent spread of the coronavirus. Family members asked that no photos or private recordings be made of the service.
His brown wooden casket was decorated with a bouquet of white roses and the church altar glimmered with dozens of white candles.
A Veterans of Foreign Wars color guard opened the ceremony, solemnly carrying the U.S. and Washington state flags.
Video screens played a selection of family photos showing Ericksen as a boy, hunting and fishing, playing high school sports, kayaking and backpacking, traveling to the Pyramids and Stonehenge, and in Southeast Asia.
Senate Republican Leader John Braun presented Ericksen's wife Tasha Ericksen with a ceremonial Washington flag, representing his service to the state.
Speakers included Ericksen's brothers Don and David, his good friend Dave Shockley, and former state Sens. Michael Baumgartner and Brian Dansel.
Shockley described Ericksen as an adventurer with a mischievous sense of humor.
"The most exhilarating and terrifying moments of my life happened with Doug," Shockley said.
Once, when Shockley and Ericksen were kayaking off the San Juan Islands, a pod of orcas began breaching near them, and one large orca swam right under their tiny boats.
"I looked at Doug and he had a look of awe and wonder on his face," Shockley said. "Clearly, he was in his element."
Baumgartner spoke by video from Britain, describing Ericksen as a strong conservative but a pragmatic legislator who would reach across the aisle for Democratic support on key bills.
"When it came to policy, Doug was a walking encyclopedia," Baumgartner said. "I'll miss Doug terribly."
Dansel spoke of his friend's integrity.
"Doug Ericksen was the same man inside the room when no cameras were looking as he was when he was outside the room," Dansel said.
They met while golfing, Dansel said, and midway through their round, Ericksen kicked off his Crocs to hit the ball barefoot, blasting Southern rock tunes from a speaker in his golf bag and quoting lines from the movie "Top Gun."
"Doug did it right, without failure," Dansel said. "I'll never forget him. With Doug in heaven, the party's underway."
Ericksen's brother Don Ericksen described him as a man "clear in his convictions who never wavered" and David Ericksen, the oldest brother, recalled his family standing outside St. Joseph hospital with the blond-haired infant Doug on a cold January in 1969.
"How do you capture what Doug meant to this community?" he asked.
David Ericksen said his brother was an ally and an advocate for his friends and family and said that his brother's death brought unimaginable grief to his wife Tasha and their daughters Elsa and Addi.
"Nowhere was he more proud than of the two of you," he said, glancing at Elsa and Addi in the front row.
"If you were Doug's friend, you were truly lucky," he said.
The Rev. John Bjorge, a family friend for three decades, sought in his eulogy to make sense of Ericksen's death during Christmas — a season of hope for those of the Christian faith.
"Where is God when life hurts? And what is this all about in light of that?" asked Bjorge, who is senior pastor of the First Lutheran Church of Richmond Beach in Shoreline, adding that Ericksen was a man of faith.
Whatcom Business Alliance founder Tony Larson told The Bellingham Herald before the service that he was grieving for Ericksen's family.
"Your heart just breaks for his wife and their kids," Larson said. "It just reminds us that life is short, life is a blessing, and you can't take anything for granted."
