Former Mercer Island resident Delores “Dede” Erchinger, 94, died at home with friends and family at her side on May 8, 2009, in Alaska. Mrs. Erchinger was born on July 1, 1914, in Cordova, Alaska. She was a 66-year resident of Mercer Island.

A memorial service will be held at 12 p.m. on Saturday, June 6, at the Community Center at Mercer View, 8236 S.E. 24th St., Mercer Island, with the Rev. Peter J. Luton officiating.

Mrs. Erchinger was featured exactly 24 years ago in a story in the May 21, 1985 issue of the Reporter. The story focused on the community involvement of the woman who had first come to the Island in 1937 when she and her husband, Alan, moved to a cabin along East Mercer Way without electricity. The family grew with three daughters and the cabin expanded into a home. Erchinger raised her children and later worked for many years at an Island real estate company. After her daughters were grown and her husband died in 1975, she began another career in community service, working on everything from coordinating the Mercerversary Parades to the city’s Bicentennial Celebration and becoming an indispensable part of the Mercer Island Chamber of Commerce.

Mrs. Erchinger had not been well for some time, but was folding Chamber newsletters for her daughter, the director of the Eagle River Chamber of Commerce in Alaska, a few days before she died.

“That sort of sums up Delores,” said Island Chamber Director Terry Moremon. “She loved being involved and was a mainstay of whatever she was involved with. She kept our Chamber going for years when there wasn’t an office, or staff. All the records and notes were in the trunk of her car.”

Moremon remembers one important chore that Mrs. Erchinger took on herself.

“I think she was in her 70s when she drove to Olympia and got the Chamber re-incorporated,” Moremon remembered. “The articles of incorporation had expired and she set about getting the Chamber re-instated.”

After moving to Seattle in the 1920s, Mrs. Erchinger graduated with honors from Queen Anne High School in 1931. She later attended and graduated from Bellevue Community College in 1972, obtaining her Washington state real estate license shortly thereafter. She was employed by Pope and Talbot as an administrative staff member in Seattle and employed by John Dunney Real Estate as an office manager in Mercer Island, where she retired in 1991. In addition to the Chamber, she was a civic leader, volunteering for many organizations over her life, including the Mercer Island Historical Society, Hopelink and the East Shore Unitarian Church, where she was a longtime member. She was honored as the Citizen of the Year by the City of Mercer Island in 1993.

She returned to Alaska for her final years in 2003, where she continued with volunteer activities for the Chugiak-Eagle River Chamber until her death.

Mrs. Erchinger’s family will always remember her for her gracious nature in the face of tremendous physical challenges. Her overriding concern was always for those around her. Survivors include her brother, Richard Kerwood; daughters, Sandy Maloof (Emmett) and Susie Gorski (Jim); and grandchildren and their families, Michael Maloof, Chris, Christy, Jacob and Teagan Ferber, and Jami, Laura, Kaylee, Tristan, Wendy and Atticus Gorski. Mrs. Erchinger was preceded in death by her husband, Alan, in 1975 and daughter, Sheryll Erchinger Milo, in 1996. The family extends a heartfelt thank-you to her physician, Dr. Dan Coverdell, Providence Home Health nurse Linda Amundson, and her care team in Alaska.

Mrs. Erchinger’s ashes will be scattered in Alaska and Washington.

Remembrances are suggested to a charity of the donor’s choice or the Mercer Island Community Fund, P.O. Box 751, Mercer Island, Wash., 98040.