Following a prolonged, fierce battle with a rare form of meningitis diagnosed too late, Eric V. Haakenson, 70, of Lake View passed away Saturday, Sept. 13, 2025, at Mercy 1 Hospital in Des Moines.
Eric Verdell Haakenson was born June 19, 1955, in North Hampton, Ia., the son of Verdell and Lois (Long) Haakenson. He grew up in Cresco, Ia., as the middle child between an older and a younger sister. He was baptized in the Catholic church in Elma, Ia., on July 3, 1955.
He was graduated from Crestwood High School in Cresco in 1973. He attended for a year the University of Iowa, where he learned quickly that his love for the outdoors trumped any desire to follow in the pharmaceutical footsteps of his father. A transfer to Kirkwood Community College in Cedar Rapids ensued. There, he earned an associate's degree in parks and recreation which ultimately led to a satisfying career that took him in the spring of 1981 to Black Hawk State Park in Lake View.
He first worked at Black Hawk as a park attendant; then in May of 1999, was promoted to the position of park ranger. Contingent with securing this coveted promotion, Eric was also graduated from the Iowa Law Enforcement Academy following a 12-week course completed while he was in his mid 40's, with this factoring into the "grandpa" nickname bestowed upon him by several of his much younger academy classmates.
In 1980, during a Thanksgiving dinner held at his parents' home in Cresco, Eric was introduced to Marcia Tschakert, a teaching colleague of his younger sister Cheryl, while both Marcia and Cheryl were employed at the high school in Luverne, Minn.
A long-distance courtship then followed, with Eric and Marcia being married June 5, 1982, in Marcia's home town of Florence, S. Dak., at Blessed Sacrament Catholic Church. The couple made their home in Lake View, where they welcomed daughter Erin in 1984 and son Adam in 1987.
Eric held his park ranger position until 2012, when he retired to reinvent himself with work that did not involve night, weekend or holiday hours. To this end, he first took on part-time employment with Sears in Carroll before accepting in the summer of 2015 a seasonal parks/campground position for the City of Lake View, returning then to work each camping season through the summer of 2022. In 2020, he also agreed to serve as the City's building inspector, conscientiously working this position until his health failed.
Eric was an active member of his beloved St. Joseph Catholic Church in Wall Lake. He was a former member of St. Joseph's parish council, served frequently as an usher and readily volunteered in many other aspects of parish life when called upon to do so.
A dedicated community volunteer, Eric served for years as secretary of the former local Lions Club and was a long-time member of both the Lake View Community Club and Carnival Committee, investing an incalculable number of hours of volunteer time for each of these organizations. Arguably, however, he truly hit his volunteer stride when he agreed to serve as a member of the Lake View Library Board of Trustees, a position which found him overseeing the ambitious library expansion project of 2020, when he was serving as the board's president.
Eric maintained a work ethic that few would argue was second to none, but balanced work with outside interests that included reading, golfing, playing bridge (especially enjoying his Tuesday afternoons with his men's bridge group), working jigsaw puzzles, watching Hawkeye football and basketball; and, more recently, Fever basketball. Gardening and yard work, however, were his life-long passions. He was always a family-first kind of man, spending countless hours playing board games with his "grands" and attending their various events and activities. He and son Adam were "all in" when it came to completing home improvement projects or embarking on road trip adventures together. During Adam's childhood, his dad stepped completely outside his comfort zone to spend several summers coaching baseball for Adam and his Little League teammates.
Those left to cherish Eric's memory include his wife of 43 years, Marcia; his daughter and son-in-law, Erin and Jeremiah Evans of West Des Moines; his son Adam of Council Bluffs; his 4 grandchildren, Eve, Michael, Raphael and Emma-Jean Evans; his sisters, Roxanne Hughes of Iowa City and Cheryl Krase of Vancouver, Wash.; 2 brothers-in-law, Dan (Patti) Tschakert of Florence, S. Dak., and Fr. Gregory Tschakert of Aberdeen, S. Dak.; 2 sisters-in-law, Ann (Dale) Tuchscherer of Milbank, S. Dak., and Valerie Tschakert of St. Cloud, Minn.; and multiple nieces, nephews, and great-nieces and nephews.
He was preceded in death by his grandson, Gabriel Evans, who died in infancy on November 6, 2014, and by his parents.
