Biography

Eva Erickson, nurse administrator and professor, was born on April 27, 1912 in Ishpeming, Michigan, the daughter of Finnish immigrants, Ilmari “Elmer” and Hilma Erickson. She had two brothers, Ero and Tauno. She graduated from Waukegan Township High School in Illinois and then attended the Michael Reese Hospital of Nursing in Chicago. She received a Bachelor of Science in Nursing Education from Columbia University in 1930 and continued her graduate education at Northwestern University in Chicago, where she earned a Master of Science in Hospital Administration. Throughout her career Erickson held a variety of administrative and teaching positions in hospitals in New York, Illinois, Washington, and Nebraska. After receiving her doctorate from Columbia University in 1962, she joined the faculty at the University of Iowa’s College of Nursing, where she remained until her retirement in 1977.

As a professor emerita, Erickson maintained her professional and personal interests through travel, correspondence, and writing. She remained interested in her Finnish background and completed biographies about Finnish immigrants and researched her family’s genealogy. She died in 2003 at the age of 90 following a brief illness.

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