Erika Kunkel

1926 - 2022

Erika Kunkel
March 18, 1926 - March 21, 2022

Erika A. Kunkel died peacefully on March 21, 2022 at home at the Lake Park Retirement Residence in Oakland.

Erika was born in Freiburg, Germany on March 18, 1926 to Felix and Charlotte Rawitscher. She spent much of her childhood in Brazil, where her family resettled in 1934 after her father accepted a position as founder of the Botany Department at the University of Sao Paulo. Erika studied plant physiology at the University of Sao Paulo, and at the age of 21 emigrated to California to study marine biology at Stanford's Hopkins Marine Station. In 1959, Erika moved to Berkeley to begin research at the University of California. In Berkeley she met and married Wulf Kunkel and together they raised their family there.

Erika loved nature and was passionate about ecology and environmental concerns. Throughout her life she took on projects related to these passions, including developing education modules for children with the Science Curriculum Improvement Study (SCIS) at the University of California, and serving as a consultant to develop an environmental education program for the Berkeley Unified School District. She was an active member of the League of Women Voters and the Society of Women Geographers and was involved in the revitalization of the Berkeley Bayfront. Erika was also an avid artist. She enjoyed sharing her interests with others through her paintings, drawings, and writings.

Erika will be missed by her daughters, Barbara and Maya, grandchildren Katia and Timothy Nonet, son-in-law Michael Nonet and grandson-in-law Ulysses Smith Jr. She was preceded in death by her husband Wulf Kunkel and brother George Rawitscher.

Memorial services will be held in her honor in the near future.