David Arthur Erickson

Major David Arthur Erickson of Eagle, Idaho, passed away on May 15th, 2023, at the age of 77 due to complications stemming a recent kidney failure.  

Dave was born in Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin on June 26th, 1945. Being a military kid, he moved around the globe with his parents, including Japan, following WWII, where the towheaded youngster was quite the curiosity for the local Japanese children! Eventually, the family landed at Mountain Home AFB when Dave was in 8th grade; he later graduated  from Mountain Home high school. Following high school he attended Utah State University, where he was recruited into the Air Force ROTC Program. Upon graduation from Utah State with a degree in fish biology, he was off to Arizona for flight school. A renaissance man in the making.
Dave spent the next 20 years flying various fighter jets for the Air force, including F-4 Phantoms in Thailand during Vietnam, and later, A-10 Thunderbolt II’s in Alaska. After he retired from his military career, Dave, ever the learner (and teacher), came back to Boise with his wife April, a nurse, and attended Boise State University, where he earned a degree in Information Technology. After graduation, he was invited to continue as an adjunct Professor of Information Sciences at Boise State, which he did until his retirement from BSU in 2006. 
Dave loved hunting, camping and taking his grandson Matthew to the shooting range, but his lifelong passion was cars, a passion he shared with April. To call Dave a car guy would be a huge understatement! He was a member of the South West Idaho Sports Car Club (SWISCC), the Corvette club, and later, the local Pontiac Club, and over the years, he owned multiple classic cars that he restored himself.

Throughout his decades-long membership in SWISCC, Dave held most, if not all board positions multiple times, and he and his proficient navigator April won numerous Rallye Championships. Dave loved both staging and participating in Rallyes with his car club friends. Leveraging his Information Systems expertise, Dave developed and coded the Rallye-writing program the club has used for decades to create the challenging Time, Speed and Distance (TSD) Rallyes he and April enjoyed so much.

Perhaps part of the reason Dave and April liked Rallyes so much is because they usually ran them in Corvettes. Beginning in 1988, Dave and April would come to own six of them, and all but the first one was purchased brand-new, including a 2007, a 2015, and most recently, a 2023--all built to their specifications. April’s favorite Corvette story is about the 2007: In September of 2006, just after Dave’s retirement from BSU, Dave and April flew to Bowling Green, Kentucky, where Corvettes are built, took delivery of their new Corvette at the adjoining Corvette Museum, and began an epic 12,000 mile, two-month adventure around the United States. April recalled the popular Chevrolet advertising slogan from back-in-the-day: “See the USA in a Chevrolet!” That they did. And it’s no surprise that April had a poster of a 1963 split window Corvette on her bedroom wall in High School. Dave—and Corvettes—were April’s destiny, long before she even knew it!


Dave was preceded in death by his parents Carl and Faye and is survived by his loving wife of 37 years April (Lang), sons Carl Erickson (Jennifer), Jeff Jensen (Melinda), Doug Jensen and four grandchildren, Tyler and Jack Erickson, and Anneliese and Matthew Jensen.

Services for Major David A. Erickson will be held at 11:00AM Tuesday, June 6th at the Idaho State Veterans Cemetery, located at 10100 N. Horseshoe Bend Road in Boise. In lieu of flowers the family asked you have a drink with your friends, hug your family members and make a donation to your favorite Veteran’s charity.