Richard Erzen

RICHARD G. ERZEN
April 6, 1928 – April 6, 2024

Richard “Dick” Erzen died on April 6, 2024, his 96th birthday. In his final months over his daily root-beer float, Dick often said he had no regrets and an empty bucket list. He was most proud of his long, happy marriage, having wed the love of his life, Edith Rae Ford, on May 29, 1949, in Kirksville, Missouri. They met while attending Northeast Missouri State University (now Truman State), fell in love, and married shortly after graduation. Dick attended college on a full basketball scholarship, later being inducted into the university’s Athletic Hall of Fame; Edie was a hometown girl living with her sister and widowed mother. Their modest wedding was held at Edie’s home.
Dick and Edie began careers of public service as teachers in Montgomery City, Missouri. Dick moved on to the administrative side while earning a doctorate as Edie raised their children and continued to substitute teach. Dick’s most-treasured career achievement took place in 1968, when he was named founding president of the College of Lake County in Grayslake, Illinois. He served there for 10 years, then responded to the lure of corporate America and the NCR Corporation, moving to company headquarters in Dayton, Ohio. His time at NCR affirmed that his original calling in public education had been right: in 1986 he left Dayton for central Illinois and a professor emeritus role at Illinois State University in Normal. Dick and Edie made Bloomington-Normal their home for the rest of his life.
Dick was also an amateur architect, designing a home for his parents in Bethalto, Illinois, while still very young, and another home in Normal in the 1980s. He was heavily involved in the design of the College of Lake County campus, suggesting, for example, that paving the sidewalks wait until the natural walking paths appeared and all-but forbidding open-backed stairs. He was an avid fisherman and an accomplished woodworker, handcrafting dollhouses for his children’s families, and salad bowls, vases, and candlesticks for various and sundry. He loved music – mostly 40s tunes and classic country. For several years, he took legendary fishing trips to deepest Canada with his brother and son. As grandchildren entered the family, he loved marching them to the woodpile and back to the fireplace where he would lead singalong renditions of “The Unicorn” by the Irish Rovers and the Elvis classic “Old Shep.” He and Edie traveled the world from Moscow to Anchorage, boarding cruise ships through the Caribbean and houseboats on Kentucky’s Lake Cumberland, often enjoying many Elderhostel adventures. On their 60th anniversary, Dick and Edie took the entire family (save one granddaughter who was stuck working in Florida) to Hawaii, where they sunned, swam, snorkeled, and spent Christmas Day eating pizza by the pool.
Dick was preceded in death by his parents, Victor and Margaret (Augustine) Erzen; sister Margie Ann; brother Vic; sisters-in-law Emma Jean and Joann Erzen; son Mark and daughter Linda Lesh. He is survived by his truest love, Edie; brother Tom; daughter-in-law Marian Erzen; son-in-law Charles Lesh; daughter Laura (Ted Pitts) Dempsey; granddaughters Christa (Jack) Flinchum, Colleen (Kevin Truitt) Dempsey, Jennifer (Johnny) Marcu; and grandsons Jim (Rebecca) Lesh, Jeff Lesh and Robert Erzen. Those grandchildren produced six great-grandchildren: Emmalyn, Hunter and Kayla Flinchum; Grace and Cecelia Lesh; and Delilah Marcu. Their visits kept him young and smiling.
Dick’s extended family is forever grateful for the unfailing kindness of caregivers from Synergy HomeCare and Traditions Hospice. In his last days he continued to flirt and joke, showing gracious appreciation for their warm-hearted tenderness. He was a popular man.
Dick’s family and friends will miss his brilliance, his wit, his generosity and innate decency. His was a life very well lived, and on his 96th birthday, Dick Erzen was ready to move on.
A memorial service will take place at Luther Oaks Retirement Community, 601 Lutz Road, Bloomington, at 2 p.m. on Saturday, May 4. Pastor Christopher Schilling of the First Presbyterian Church in Normal will officiate. In lieu of flowers, the family encourages a contribution to a charity of your choice.

Please view the obituary and share your condolences and memories online at www.calvertmemorial.com