Eric Schlitz

His mother was Elizabeth (Work) Schlitz and his father was Harry H. Schlitz. He had two older brothers, Harry (Bud) and John. Eric was always around the ocean as he grew up. Fishing was something he loved and when Bud moved to Mission Bay in San Diego, Eric spent his summers with Bud’s family, out in the bay.

When Eric was 16, World War II began. He persuaded his parents to sign permission for him to join the US Navy. Immediately after boot camp, he was sent to the South Pacific and assigned to small landing craft boats. He did not have long to wait to get into action and spent his 17th birthday helping to bring in the Marines into the beach at Tarawa. The following year he was sent to the Philippine Islands to again participate in the invasion. In April 1945, he served in the battle for Okinawa. It was a long time before he saw the United States again.

In the spring of 1950, his ship visited New York City for short stay. While he was there, he met the girl who was to become his wife, JoAnn. After a brief courtship of only three days, he asked her to marry him. They were married on August 4, 1950. The conflict in Korea kept him overseas for many months. He was at Inchon in September of that year and helped rescue the Marines at Hungnam in December. He stayed in the Navy until his first child, Marie was born in 1952.

Eric moved his family back to Whittier, California after his discharge. Jobs were scarce in those days because of all the returning service members. After a series of construction industry jobs, he finally landed a job as a maintenance mechanic at the Firestone Tire and Rubber Company in South Gate, California. He loved his job and the challenges it presented. It was enough to pay the bills and there were two more children in the family; Dean who was born in 1954 and Eric Jr. who was born in 1955.

While the children were growing up, Eric took the family camping and fishing at every opportunity. There was hardly a campground in California they did not visit.

The family grew up and married well. Eric married Marsha and had a son, Ryan. Dean never married and Marie married Edward Gesick and had two daughters, Dannette and Lacy.

Eric always marveled at the fact that he had survived the war and believed that God had been with him. He became a Jehovah’s Witness in 1989 and served as a faithful servant of Jehovah until his death.

Eric retired from Firestone in 1980 following an injury to his spine. About the same time, Eric and JoAnn moved to Riverside, California. Eric remained an avid ocean fisherman throughout his life. He wore out both his shoulders fishing for tuna and, when he was lucky, catching mahi-mahi. His son, Eric, inherited his love for the sea. Dean passed away in 2015.

The family will miss Eric’s “sea stories” and fishing tales. JoAnn and Eric celebrated 69 years of marriage she says she would do it all over again without hesitating.