Ervin Skov

ERVIN HERBERT SKOV was born at home on a small farm in Askov, Minnesota on September 16, 1926. His father Otto came from Denmark to Minnesota after completing contract farm labor jobs in Argentina and Canada, finding his way to settle in the largely immigrant community of Askov. Ervin’s mother Karolina was born on the Danish island of Bornholm in the Baltic Sea, much nearer Sweden than Denmark.

Ervin was the youngest of 3 children in his family. The oldest was Ervin’s brother Harvey, then sister Helga. During the Depression in the 1930s, Ervin’s father traveled west to Washington, Oregon, and California to find better opportunity for his family. While visiting a Danish friend in Enumclaw, Washington, he found work at a sawmill and was able to rent a small acreage. Ervin was 10 years old when he and the rest of his family drove out to settle in Enumclaw as well. Their house, at the foot of “Mt. Peak” was next door to a home with 2 boys just a bit younger than Ervin - they were Jim and Keith Oien, who remained lifelong friends (and became family!) Their father Sig would eventually be instrumental in Ervin’s life in helping Ervin get his first dairy job, as well as bringing him to the dairy company in which Ervin had a career of over 30 years.

Jim and Keith Oien ALSO had a close first cousin - Florita Oien, whom they saw almost every Sunday at their maternal grandmother’s big house in Maple Valley. Ervin saw her occasionally too when she visited her cousins in Enumclaw, and when Ervin was a little older, he worked once in a while for Florita’s father Lee, who owned Oien’s Dairy and milk delivery business in Kent. Ervin graduated from Enumclaw High School in 1944, spent time in the Merchant Marines and then 2 years in the the Army as a Radio Operator in Korea. When he returned, he married Florita in 1953.

As a returning serviceman, Ervin went back to work at the dairy where his now in-law Sig was head cheesemaker - at Kristofferson”s Dairy, which later became Meadowsweet Dairy, then Foremost Dairy, a division of Foremost-McKesson. He and Florita bought a house just being built a couple blocks up from Lake Washington at Rainier Beach. In 1956 they had a son Stanley and in 1961 another son Norman. They lived in their Rainier Beach home for 57 years.

Ervin retired in 1988, a member and always proud supporter of the Teamster’s Union. He and Florita hosted frequent family visits from “the old country”. They also travelled more, frequently in their much loved “Leisureway” mini-motorhome. They traveled with Florita’s “Class of 1945” Kent High School classmates RV group - “The 45ers”. They made many trips all around Washington and the Northwest, as well as Alaska and down to Cabo San Lucas in Baja California. They took cross country trips to visit Ervin’s brother Harvey and wife Ione who spent winters in Arizona, and all the way to Key West in Florida, stopping a couple times to stay with their son Stan who in the 1990s had settled on land near Austin Texas.

Ervin and Florita had gone to Scandinavia in 1967 with Stanley and Norman, reconnecting with Ervin’s family in Denmark and Florita’s in Norway and Sweden. After Ervin retired, they returned to Scandinavia and visited again cousins who had welcomed them a quarter century before, some of whom they had hosted in America in the years since. They traveled to England and Ireland too, and joined a tour of Australia and New Zealand.

In 2010 Ervin and Florita moved to the Lakeshore Senior Residence just over a mile away from their home of nearly 60 years. They lived there together for another 13 years, enjoying shorter trips to meet with family and friends and celebrated their 70th wedding anniversary on June 13, 2023. Florita passed away on the second day of 2024, and Stanley stayed on to care for Ervin until he joined his beloved Florita on June 18, 2026.

Throughout his very long life, Ervin’s family was central to him, Holidays and summer’s at a little family cabin on the beach on Bainbridge Island; he was the man who quietly kept everything shipshape, a strong, kind, generous and always friendly pillar of our extended family. As good and straightforward, honest and caring as the day is long, we are missing his charming, funny and peaceful presence. Ervin considered himself a very lucky man, found contentment and happiness in his life with Florita and placed family above all of his life’s priorities.

We held a simple burial service at Hillcrest Burial Park in Kent at 10:30 am on Friday morning, July 24. After the ceremony we gathered at the home of Gayle Pearl, daughter of Ervin's childhood friend Keith Oien. Call Stan at (737) 465-3317 for information or to say hello.
Thank you Holly and Gayle and Janelle and Lois for all your help and support and your love for Ervin and Florita through all these years passed.