Myron Erickson

Myron " Mike " Erickson, 96, of Humboldt, died Wednesday, March 4, 2015 at the Scottsdale Healthcare Osborn Medical Center at Scottsdale, Arizona. A Celebration of Life will be held at 10:30 a.m. Thursday, March 12 at the Faith United Methodist Church in Humboldt, with Rev. Charles Luers officiating. Burial will be in the Indian Mound Cemetery, south of Humboldt. Visitation will be at the church from 4:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. Wednesday and prior to the service on Thursday. Myron Virgil Erickson, son of Hildor and Ida Niemand Erickson, was born April 12, 1918 on a farm southeast of Pocahontas near Palmer. He received his education at Lincoln # 9 rural school in Pocahontas County. In 1930, he worked for Frank Shaw, where he started his love for Holstein dairy cows. He received his high school education at Pocahontas, where he worked at the Pocahontas Dairy. He learned the blacksmith trade from his uncle, Robert Erickson. Following high school, he worked at Coates Manufacturing at Fort Dodge as a welder. In 1935, the Rural Electric Authority provided electricity to rural Iowa. Mike and his brother, Jordan started an electrical company, working with Metropolitan Life Insurance Company to provide electrical service to farmers. With their crew, they wired farmsteads in northwest Iowa and Minnesota. He later worked as an electrician and blacksmith at Manson. On September 1, 1939, he married Helen Mae Scott at the Little Brown Church at Nashua. They resided at Manson. In 1941, the family moved to California where he worked at the Terminal Island Shipyards at Wilmington. Helen worked at an airplane assembly plant near San Diego. They returned to Iowa in 1944 where he started farming his parent's farm near Pocahontas. In 1945, they moved to a farm two miles north of Duncombe, where he raised hogs, chickens and started in the dairy business. Custom baling and spraying were later added along with more farm land. In March of 1960, they moved to a farm south of Humboldt later buying the Frank Gotch farm. Mike is survived by sons and daughters-in-law, Robert and Mary Ann Erickson of Webster City; Gary and Carol Erickson of Dakota City; James and Sherry Erickson and Dan and Carlene Erickson, all of Humboldt; daughter, Judy Van Boening of Humboldt; 14 grandchildren; 16 great-grandchildren; several nieces and nephews. He was preceded in death by brothers and sisters, Agnes Grimm, Jordan Erickson Luella Samuelson, Evelyn Vote, Lawrence Erickson, Mabel Hunt and Adeline Vinsonhaler.