Carolyn Errington (1908-2011)

ERRINGTON

Posted By: Mark Christian
Date: 8/5/2012 at 20:19:46

From Adams & Soderstrum Funeral Home obituary, Story County, Iowa:

Carolyn Errington

BORN: October 2, 1908
DIED: April 19, 2011
LOCATION: Ames, Iowa

Carolyn Errington, 102, a woman of passionate commitments

Carolyn Errington, a woman of passionate commitments to her family, friends, and nation, is dead at 102. The cause was congestive heart failure, according to her sons. Born during 1908 in Brookings, South Dakota, Mrs. Errington was trained as a musician at the McPhail Music Conservatory in Minneapolis and as a lawyer at the University of Minnesota, but found her calling when she met and married Dr. Paul Errington, a zoologist and naturalist of renown. Moving to Ames where Dr. Errington was on the Iowa State faculty, she joined him in his field research. She not only helped to collect data (largely about predation within Midwestern marshes), but also to edit manuscripts. Indeed, after Dr. Errington’s untimely death in 1962, Mrs. Errington brought two of his books to publication from the notes and essays he left. Theirs was a truly companionate marriage: a colleagueship and a great love.

In addition to teaching English at Iowa State, Mrs. Errington brought up two sons, Peter, a retired economist who worked for Defense Logistics in Washington, DC, and Frederick, a retired anthropologist who taught at Trinity College in Hartford, CT. She was a devoted mother and mentor to them both.

She was, as well, a devoted friend. Mrs. Errington had a rare capacity to engage others, including many much younger than she, playing piano duets with some, teaching bread-baking to others, and always conversing about the state of the nation, her special interest. In fact, she is the author of a manuscript about John Marshall and the shaping of the American Supreme Court, and followed the American political scene with attention. She would ask all new acquaintances whether they were Democrats, as was she; although she would never disdain anyone for alternative perspectives, she would promise to try to convert them to her own. And so she did to a young neighbor who came to read the speech that introduced candidate Barack Obama to the Ames community before the Iowa caucuses, a speech written by Mrs. Errington when she was a mere 99.
Carolyn Errington is survived by her sons, by her daughter-in-law, Deborah Gewertz, and by the numerous people she inspired over the course of her long life.

A memorial service will be held on Sunday, June 12th, between 2-5 at the Reiman Gardens.
Contributions in Mrs. Errington’s name can be made to Israel Family Hospice House.

Memorial Service

June 12, 2011
2:00 PM to 5:00 PM
Reiman Gardens
1407 University Blvd.
Ames, IA 50014

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