Jerald Ericksen

Who is Jerald Ericksen?

Jerald LaVerne Ericksen is an American mathematician specializing in continuum mechanics.

Jerald was born in Portland, Oregon. His father Adolf worked at a Portland creamery and became adept at judging the quality of butter. Later his father acquired a small creamery in Vancouver, Washington where the family moved. Jerald’s brother A. Erwin was born there, and Jerald helped out in the creamery.

In the fall of 1942 he entered Oregon State College in Corvallis. When he reached eighteen years of age he enlisted in the U. S. Navy. He was trained as an officer, first at University of Idaho, Pocatello, and then was transferred to NROTC at the University of Washington, Seattle. During his 85.5 weeks of training he met his future wife Marion Pook. On active duty he was part of Landing Craft Infantry, assigned the task of launching rockets to clear beaches for invasion in the Philippines. On the termination of hostilities he was shipped back to San Diego. He married Marion on February 24, 1946 and resigned from the service that summer.

Ericksen enrolled in University of Washington and was able to obtain his bachelors degree in a year due to credits accumulated in his Navy training.