Ernest William Amundsen, who was born in Alaska when it was still a territory and went on to live, work, study, serve and volunteer all around the country and even overseas, died at Lewiston on Saturday, Oct. 21, 2023. He was 98.
Ernie was a kind, soft-spoken man who had a wide range of interests. Even though he had a long life, he seemed destined to make it to 100. His death has left a vast hole in our hearts, especially for his wife Mary Ellen.
Ernie was born Aug. 15, 1925, in Anchorage, Alaska, the second of four children born to Ernest and Victoria Amundsen. His older brother, Iver, couldn’t say “brother” and instead called him “Buddy,” which became a nickname that many in Anchorage called Ernie for years.
Ernie and his siblings enjoyed a comfortable upbringing with lots of outdoor adventures until their father died of cancer in March 1938. Without his father’s income from being the town’s police chief, the family had little money and no skills with which to make money. But Ernie’s mother turned down all charity, proposals of marriage from her late husband’s friends and offers to send her children to orphanages. Victoria sat down with her two older sons, Iver and Ernie, and said, “We three will make enough to keep the family together.”
Victoria turned the family’s home into a boarding house, which catered to children from the Alaskan interior who would stay there so they could attend school at Anchorage. Ernie also brought in money by delivering newspapers, selling produce, snaring and selling rabbits door-to-door, and helping his mom with her janitor job cleaning at the school. Ernie went on to work for several other businesses, which included directing potential customers to the town’s prostitutes, who would pay 50 cents apiece for every client sent their way.
Ernie enlisted in the U.S. Army Air Corps in October 1943 when he turned 18. He was in the air cadet training program and spent time in Alaska, Washington, Colorado, Missouri, Arizona, New Mexico, Wisconsin, Illinois, Florida and Utah. The cadet program was eliminated in 1945, after which he went to airborne radio operator school. After graduating, he was assigned to proving ground command, with their mission of dropping bombs for test purposes in the Gulf of Mexico and Utah desert until he was discharged in March 1946. Ernie called his years of service “the most educational of my entire life.”
After his service, he studied pre-medicine at Augsburg College in Minneapolis, but later switched to mechanical engineering at the University of Minnesota, where he earned a bachelor’s degree. He also held a variety of jobs during that time, working as a truck driver, bartender, factory worker and on a survey crew.
Ernie married Delphia “Del” Pauline Wenborg on Sept. 16, 1950. Their children were Todd Arthur, who died just a few days after being born, Eric Wendell, Victoria (Toya) and Marilla Marcia.
In 1952, Ernie took a job with aircraft manufacturer Consolidated Vultee (later named Convair) in Fort Worth, Texas. During his eight years with the company, he worked on the last few B-36s to leave the assembly line, as well as YB-60s and B-58 Hustlers, the last of which he designed a significant part of the environmental control system.
Ernie then took a job with RCA and worked on the mechanical aspects of various electronic systems. He and the company were on the front lines of the Cold War, and the job also brought him and his family back to Alaska.
Wanting to have a more stable situation for his family, Ernie took a job with the U.S. Forest Service in Missoula, Mont., in 1965. He helped design and build specialized equipment for forestry field use. He and his colleagues worked on Forest Service projects all over the country, and he traveled more than he had with Convair or RCA. His most memorable project was helping salvage the rice crop in Pakistan, which earned him the second-highest award in the Forest Service from Earl Butz, the Secretary of Agriculture, at a ceremony in Washington, D.C., in 1973. Ernie retired from the Forest Service in 1987.
His wife Del was diagnosed with a double aneurysm of the aorta in 1990. She had surgery to correct it, but it wasn’t successful and she died Aug. 26, 1990.
Ernie later met Mary Ellen Bender, and they were married Aug. 7, 1993. In 1994, Ernie and Mary Ellen volunteered for Habitat for Humanity in Americus, Ga., for a full year. Ernie helped build houses and Mary Ellen worked in the office and also opened and managed a gift shop for the organization.
In 1995, the couple moved back to Lewiston, where they stayed for most of the last three decades, other than briefs moves to Missoula and the Tri-Cities. Ernie took several creative writing classes at Lewis-Clark State College and stayed active by cycling and walking.
Ernie was preceded in death by his parents; brothers Iver and Charles; sister Betty Lou; wife Delphia; son Todd; and daughter Victoria (Toya). He is survived by son Eric (wife Jacquie, deceased); daughter Marilla (husband Richard); wife Mary Ellen; stepchildren Steve Friend, Scott Friend and Janette Hitz (husband Riddell); grandchildren Brandon Brooke (wife Melissa), Logan Brooke (wife Kristen), Nathan Hitz and Hailey Johnson (husband Jonathan); and great-granddaughter Nori Brooke (daughter of Brandon and Melissa). He is also survived by his bike riding buddy, Paul Church.
For those interested in contributing a memorial in Ernie’s honor, the family suggests those go to Habitat for Humanity.
At Ernie’s request, no service is planned.
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