‘Tough Guys Win!’

(Carl) Eric Lindberg was born Oct. 7, 1934, to Gus and Lilly Lindberg in Bellingham, Wash. Eric passed away suddenly with his family by his side Feb. 9, 2015, shortly after a diagnosis, battle and ensuing treatment for Acute Myeloid Leukemia.

Eric’s parents had emigrated from Sweden to the U.S. shortly before the birth of their children. When Eric was 2 years old, the family moved back to Umeå Sweden, and Swedish became Eric’s first language. Two years later, the family moved back to the U.S. when Eric was 4 years old and settled in Everson, Wash., where Eric’s father had been offered employment and eventual partnership with the Everson Implement Company. There, Eric became a proud graduate of Nooksack Valley High School and kept in contact with his fellow graduates and classmates, to whom he felt an endearing connection.

Following high school, “Coach” enrolled at Western Washington University and began many years of commercial fishing nearly every summer in Alaska and periodically in Puget Sound. Fishing income helped him finance his college education and supplement his teaching income through the summer of 1994. He was honored to interrupt his college years to enlist in the U.S. Army, serving as a medic stationed in Augsburg, Germany.

After an honorable discharge from the Army, Eric re-enrolled at and graduated from Western Washington University with a B.A. in education and began his teaching and coaching career in Portland, Ore., then Pe Ell, Wash., and eventually settled in Oak Harbor, Wash., in 1962. During summer school in 1962, mutual friends introduced Eric to undergraduate Barbara Dowen, whom he eventually married July 6, 1963, after she graduated from Western. Barbara joined Eric in teaching and raising a family in Oak Harbor for the next 50 years. This past summer they celebrated their 51st wedding anniversary aboard a European river cruise on a three-week tour through six countries.

Eric taught and coached a variety of athletics in elementary, junior high and high school. As for the classroom, he found his passion teaching senior World Problems at Oak Harbor High School, specializing in Russian history and culture, and went on to develop a very detailed curriculum, including numerous student and adult cultural exchange trips to Russia and China. As for coaching, he helped with many sports, finding his calling as head track and field and cross country coach in 1968. His coaching résumé also included a one-year sabbatical that he took in 1972-73 to study at Linfield College in McMinnville, Ore., where he earned a master’s degree in history. While at Linfield, he was also head cross country coach and assistant track and field coach, specializing in training quarter-mile sprinters. Over many years, Eric also taught college-level classes for WWU, SPU, Embry Riddle, Humboldt and Linfield College, ultimately retiring from teaching in 1990. However, he could not shake his love for coaching, and he continued to coach in a variety of capacities up until his diagnosis in December, including Oak Harbor High School cross country, Coupeville High School track and field, private coaching and mentoring with both students and adults, and, most recently, coaching javelin, shot put and discus throwers at Edmonds-Woodway High School as an assistant track and field coach. Eric received numerous awards over many years in recognition of his teams’ many successes in the field of competition and for his dedication to student excellence over five decades of work, including induction into the Washington State Track & Field Coaches’ Hall of Fame, Washington State representative to the National Track & Field Coaches’ Convention, Skagit Valley Herald Coach of the Year, Northwest District Cross Country Coach of the Year, and Northwest League Track & Field Coach of the Year.

“Coach” had many personal interests. Most notably, he was an insatiable reader of both history and politics, possessing a very large library. As a coach himself, he was an avid sports fan and a UW Husky football season ticket holder for more 40 years, attending both home and away games with Barbara over the years. He was also a charter member of both the Navy League and Elks Club in Oak Harbor, a member of both the Oak Harbor and Lynnwood Rotary Clubs, American Legion, Oak Harbor Excellence in Education Committee, the Wildcat Booster Club, Oak Harbor Educational Foundation, Oak Harbor Lutheran Church, and Trinity Lutheran Church in Lynnwood.

Eric was a consummate lifelong learner, both personally and professionally. He felt a calling not only to instill this passion in each of his students, but also to model life skills to them as well — be honest, dependable, loyal, trustworthy and ethical in your dealings with all people. And, in whatever path you choose for your life, always strive to be the very best that you can be, both personally and professionally.

Eric was preceded in death by his parents and his sister, Ingrid Dahlgren. He is survived by wife, Barbara, in Lynnwood; his son, Christian (Lisa), and granddaughter, Annika, in Edmonds; his daughter, Erin Berg (Halvard), and grandson, Henrik, in Sammamish; his sister’s family in Forks, Wash., including his brother-in-law, Joel Dahlgren; numerous nieces and nephews and their families; and cousins in Sweden, Anders Jörlen, Hans Jörlen, Kerstin Bridgeman-Williams and Barbro Balkö.

Donation: In lieu of flowers, the family asks for consideration of a contribution to the Coach Lindberg Memorial Scholarship for Oak Harbor High School, where Eric spent 30 years teaching, coaching and volunteering. Tax-deductible donations can be made out to Oak Harbor Educational Foundation, noted for the Coach Lindberg Memorial Scholarship, and mailed to P.O. Box 1801, Oak Harbor, WA 98277.

Private interment and committal at Tahoma National Cemetery in Kent, Wash. Arrangements provided by the National Cremation Society in Tukwila, Wash. A memorial service will be held at 1 p.m. Saturday, March 28, at Trinity Lutheran Church, 6215-196th St. SW, Lynnwood, WA 98036. Reception (following memorial) at the Edmond’s Yacht Club, 326 Admiral Way, Edmonds, WA 98020.

The family wishes to extend its sincere gratitude to Dr. Amir Modarressi of Group Health Oncology in Bellevue, Wash., and the staff of Dr. Elihu Estey at Seattle Cancer Care Alliance. Eric maintained an amazing attitude throughout his illness, and their care and attention to his needs were instrumental to this. Their medical support of Eric over the last two months was remarkable, and their grace in supporting all of us will not be forgotten.