Colleen Kay Ernst

ERNEST

Posted By: Sarah Fletcher (email)
Date: 7/16/2024 at 09:37:59

Colleen Kay Ernst was born on March 9, 1951 during a nighttime winter blizzard. She died early on June 15, 2024, a cool and cloudy late spring morning. The life that connected these two points was full.

For many years Colleen was known to her students as Dr. Art. She was an elementary school art teacher, mostly at Ernest Horn in Iowa City, Iowa, where she wore a white lab coat stolen from the UI College of Medicine by her husband (hence "Doctor").

As an art teacher for over 25 years she inspired countless young artists, taking her greatest professional and personal joy in watching them create.

She was, as well, an accomplished artist herself, producing many pieces over the years that still hang in the homes of her loyal patrons, with one particularly masterful self-portrait currently hanging in the UI Stanley Museum of Art.

She began her life in Burlington, Iowa as the daughter of Viola and Claude Ernst and sister of Philip Ernst. It ended in the Mechanicsville, Iowa nursing home, where she died of complications due to late-stage breast cancer.

Colleen is survived by Bill, her husband, and by Tama (Aaron, Josh, Kaya, Gabbie, Adan and Zelalem), Jessica (Enya and Maya), Max and Evie (Oberon), and Sophie, her children. In addition, she is survived by her lifelong friends and guardians, Betsy, Christine, Susan, Beth, Buffy, Mary, Jean and Nancy.

Memorials may be made in Colleen’s name to the Foundation for the ICCSD for the Art Fund or Horn Elementary Art online at bit.ly/FoundationICCSD or by mail to 1725 N. Dodge St. Iowa City, IA 52245.

Lensing Funeral & Cremation Service
 

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