L. Eric Skalinder

Skalinder, L. Eric
1941-2009: Teacher, family man, student of American life - L. Eric Skalinder spent his life in search of different ways to experience the world and share it with others, following a path through regions, careers, and cultures before returning to teach science and nurture a family in the North Shore communities where he was raised. Skalinder, 68, died just after midnight on September 10 in Evanston Hospital following a stroke on September 8. His training as an anthropologist guided his choices in a life focused on understanding the full richness of the American experience, in roles ranging from white-collar work in Chicago's industrial and financial sectors to propane and lumber delivery in rural Kentucky. After studying at the Universities of Wisconsin and Illinois, Skalinder left higher education in the mid nineteen-sixties to work and support his young family, spending several years at the State of Illinois Institute of Juvenile Research and then in human resources at Inland Steel in Chicago. Listening to colleagues in the declining steel industry speak wistfully about retiring early to teach, Skalinder decided to leave the industrial sector to become a math teacher at the Latin School of Chicago. After several years of teaching, he embarked on a period of travels, moving to northern Michigan to work as an auto mechanic and later to San Francisco, where he married his second wife in 1975. In San Francisco, he held what he described as one of the best jobs of his life, doing brake repair for Reed and Hagensen Service Station, located at the bottom of one of the city's many hills. He would joke afterwards about his boss at the Station, who was at first nervous about hiring a mechanic with a graduate school education, but who later remarked that the next time the business needed a brake mechanic they would look to hire an anthropologist. The son of two musicians, Skalinder was influenced by music from an early age, singing in the choir of St. Luke's Episcopal Church of Evanston as a boy and studying trombone with Frank Crisafulli. He played bass fiddle in bluegrass groups in Chicago and with local bands in northern Kentucky, where he spent several years farming and managing a lumberyard. Driving to work on an icy road in Kentucky, Skalinder lost control of his Volkswagen and drove over the edge of a cliff. Although he escaped death and recovered from the severe injuries caused by the accident, the event forced a move back to the Chicago area to be near his extended family. Skalinder returned to teaching math and science and, aside from a brief stint at his brother's Chicago actuarial firm, he spent the remainder of his career teaching in the Chicago area, at the Francis Parker School, the Chicago Academy of the Arts, and finally at the North Shore Country Day School, where he taught physics for ten years before retiring in 2008. It was around the time of his move back to the Chicago area that raising a family became an especially important part of his effort to understand the richness of human and American life. He returned to St. Luke's choir to sing with his sons, and became a fixture cheering them on from the bleachers of the same Evanston Township High School swimming pool where he himself had been a state champion swimmer as a youth. He rebuilt a relationship with his daughter from his first marriage, and in his later years made trips to her London home, including one in the summer before his death. It was these shared experiences of his childrens' lives that he found most fulfilling, and fatherhood was the achievement of which he was most proud. Skalinder died peacefully with his whole family around him, and is survived by his wife Carole; his daughter, Celia Haining; his sons, David and Stephen; his brother, Gregg, and the countless students, friends, and extended family whom he nurtured and who helped him live his life to the fullest. A memorial celebration is set for 2:00 p.m. on Saturday, September 19 at the North Shore Country Day School, 310 Green Bay Rd., Winnetka, IL 60093. Please send donations to the American Association for the Advancement of Science, 1200 New York Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20005 or to the North Shore Country Day School scholarship fund.