ERIC WILLIAM LUNDGREN

1970 - 2016

LUNDGREN, ERIC WILLIAM On January 6, 2016, Eric William Lundgren of Colchester passed away unexpectedly at the age of 45. He was born in 1970 in Meriden, the son of Raymond and Linda Lundgren. He graduated from Sheehan High School in Wallingford in 1988 distinguishing himself as an athlete. He was quarterback of the football team, played small forward, the most versatile of the main five positions on the basketball team, and participated in the long jump and pole vault as a member of the track team. He worked his way through ECSU attaining Dean’s List while employed as a cook/caterer and performing as a musician. He graduated in 1994. In 2000, Eric married Jill Belli, the daughter of James and Carol Belli from Norwich. He did post-graduate work at CCSU as he began his life’s work dedicated to helping some of the most afflicted among us. Eric started his professional career at P.R.I.D.E. in Chaplin as a behavioral counselor working with people with traumatic brain injuries. In 1996, he became a Community Case Manager at the Chrysalis Center in Hartford where he worked with adults with mental illness, AIDS, and drug/alcohol abuse. He spent the past 17 years at Connecticut Valley Hospital working with patients with episodic or persistent psychiatric illness. Eric was a multi-talented man who was also an accomplished musician and composer. Throughout his adult life he formed various bands in which he was the lead guitar and vocalist performing at a variety of venues. He also successfully marketed music he had composed. He was an outdoor man who loved skiing in Vermont, boating and fishing at Gardner Lake, and golfing anywhere. He was famous for his dry sense of humor, but also his generosity and loyalty to his family and friends. He was always willing to help and invariably generated laughter as he lent a hand. He was a born leader and an extraordinarily handsome, amiable, and capable man who had not a whisper of vanity in his body. Those who knew him loved him. Eric is survived by his wife and daughter, Jill and Sydney Lundgren, his parents, Ray and Linda Lundgren, his sister, Karrie, his grandmother, Ann Paturel, his nieces, Jordan, Alyssa, and Taylor Terrenzi and Layla Caramante along with Lundgren, DeFosses, and Paturel aunts, uncles and cousins. A Celebration of Life will be held at St. Andrew’s Church in Colchester on Saturday, January 16 at 10:00 a.m. Calling hours will also be held at St. Andrew’s on Friday, January 15 from 5:00 to 8:00 p.m. In lieu of flowers, the family requests donations to the Sydney Lundgren Educational Fund administered by Liberty Bank, 219 South Main Street, Colchester, CT 06415, or to a charity of your choice.