Marvin Orion Errickson

Marvin Errickson died at the age of 80 on 3/21/23 from complications of prostate cancer, holding hands with his two daughters by his side. Marv was born in Denver Colorado on St Patrick’s Day, 1943, the second of two sons of Martha and Martin Errickson. His father, a pharmacist, died when Marvin was eight years old so he was raised by his mother, a school teacher, with help from his Fedde aunts, uncles and cousins.

While attending the Colorado school of Mines in Golden, Colorado to get his degree in Geophysical Engineering, he worked summers surveying land in the Pampa Texas oil fields. After receiving his undergraduate degree, he pursued his education at the University of Colorado School of Law. While at CU, Marvin met and married his wife Jennifer, with whom he later had his two daughters.

During that last year of law school, while the Vietnam War was raging, the US Army kept sending Marvin draft notices. He was able to postpone the draft until he graduated with his Juris Doctor Degree, and passed the Bar exam. He was then drafted into active duty by the Army. After bootcamp basic training then Officer Candidate school the Army realized he was a lawyer with an engineering degree. Marvin was made a Captain in the Judge Advocate General's Corps, and served four years in Arlington Virginia under a five-star general, reviewing contracts using his top-secret clearance.

Upon his honorary discharge he moved with his wife and two little daughters to San Diego where his wife had extended family. He worked for a short while as a stockbroker and then as an attorney in general practice.

Growing up in Colorado gave Marvin easy access to the beautiful snowy mountains where he learned to be an expert skier, taking the ski train with his team from Denver to Winter Park, while a member of the ski team at East High School. He became a downhill racer in college and even dabbled in ski jumping from those huge Olympic-size ski jumps in Winter Park Colorado. A spiral leg fracture took him off the slopes for an extended period, but Marvin recovered and remained active in amateur ski racing throughout his life. Marvin was also a technical mountain climber, along with many 14’ers in Colorado, he climbed Mt. Whitney in California and would regularly go climb a rock somewhere for fun. Marvin fully utilized his annual ski pass every year until Covid-19 shut down the slopes in the middle of an Aspen ski trip.

Marathon races became another passion and he completed at least 170 in his lifetime per his estimate. He was a legacy runner of the Rock ‘n’ Roll Marathon in San Diego, the eldest person to have run every single event from the beginning in 1998 through 2021. Marvin ran a marathon on the Great Wall of China, LA Marathon, the Wild Wild West Ultra Marathon in Lone Pine, many San Diego Marathons, and ran the Carlsbad Marathon every year, winning his division in January 2022 at the age of 79. Marvin was a long-time member of the San Diego Hash House Harriers running club, known as Wonder.

Marvin was well traveled, having gone on many excursions including Egypt to see the great pyramids, the Great Wall of China, the Monarch Butterfly Reserve Biosphere in Mexico, and he went on many ski trips to Europe and Canada, as well as skiing and camping trips all over the US.

Marvin Errickson, our Dad, was a gentle unassuming free loving soul who chose to live life to the fullest at all times. He was never judgmental, he always offered help if you were in need, and if you were facing challenges he would say move forward and forget about it as long as you learned the lesson. For us as his children at times it was challenging to track him down as most of his life he was out on some adventure seeing the world doing what he loved most which in the end was one of his greatest strengths, his bucket list was complete. He was able to enjoy every moment of life all the way up to his last marathon he ran in January 2022. In May of 2022, he was diagnosed with prostate cancer and life changed. We as children switched roles and were able to take care of our Dad spending his last 10 months together, enjoying the final days of his life. We will always cherish the moments and trips we shared. Our dad was our hero, in the end we would argue who was who’s hero, we were each other’s greatest protectors and will continue to be as he is now our angel.

Marvin Errickson is survived by his two daughters, Julie and Dana, his ex-wife Jennifer, and four grandchildren, Stephanie, Christopher, Zachary, and Nicholas. Marvin will be interred at Miramar National Cemetery and funeral services will be held at Miramar National Cemetery on June 23 at 2:00 pm.