Erwin A. Herbst's Obituary
Erwin Anthony HerbstFebruary 8, 1932 – April 21, 2018Beloved father and naturalist Erwin Anthony Herbst of Hayward, California, passed away April 21, leaving behind a wife and three daughters who will miss him dearly. He was 86.Born the second of three children to Erwin and Catherine Herbst, in Town of Lake, Wisconsin, Erwin loved the outdoors early on and enjoyed trips with his father to the back woods of the Badger State, where he learned to build fires, make his own bow and arrows, tie knots and hunt game. These skills later earned him standing as an explorer scout with frontiersman honors. Eventually, he would share his love of nature through photography and often he would take his children on hiking trips to the East Bay Hills of California, encouraging the young ones to skip across running creeks on river rocks. He would pick wildflowers to give to his wife, Sandra, on his return home.Erwin loved to tell stories about his childhood, about his travels as a Marine, where he served in North Carolina in the early 1950s, and about his courting of Sandra as a young man. The two met in 1953, when Erwin came with Sandra’s brother, Dan, to the Champeau Five and Dime store in south Milwaukee. Sandra was standing behind the register at the candy counter. “I noticed him,” she recalled. “He was older, just out of the Marines and different from the others. He was quiet, sensitive; I could tell that right away.”His trademark story highlighted what was bizarre and marvelous about life, and sometimes a listener wondered if the story were really true, but so wanted it to be. These were stories of wolves watching children play in the yards of houses along Fourth Street where he grew up, of a particle beam escaping the accelerator facility where he worked and hitting him in the eye, of alligators spinning through the air, caught in the winds of a Carolina hurricane.Erwin and Sandra became engaged in 1954 and married in 1955, with a wondrous ceremony at St. Augustine Church in Milwaukee. Sandra carried a bouquet of daisies. His love for her remained steady through 63 years of marriage and as he lay dying in a hospital bed he called her to come closer and told her he loved her dearly.In 1956, their first child, Catherine Marie, was born and named after Erwin’s mother. In 1958, their son, Michael John, was born, and that year the couple decided to move to California and took a memorable car ride across the country in Erwin’s fixed-up blue V-8 Chrysler that never broke down the entire trip, but was hit by another car shortly after arrival in California. In California, their third child, Laura Ann, was born in Oakland, where the couple rented a home.Erwin took pride in his skills as a machinist and worked at different shops in the Bay Area, including 20 years helping to build Peterbilt trucks in Newark. The couple was thrilled in 1961 to buy their own home, which had three bedrooms and a yard. Sandra’s brothers Dan and John helped to plant the grass in that yard and came to the home in Hayward for holiday meals. Later, Erwin would help Sandra tend their elaborate rose garden, which graced the neighborhood with its colors and scents.In 1974, daughter Shawna Marie was born in Hayward, and a few years later, Erwin was able to retire and spend more time at home with this last child. He drove her to school and took pictures of their trips to the beach with the family dog, Casey.Like everyone else, Erwin faced tragedy in his life, most notably the early death of his son. Mike, who was an expert marathon bicyclist, died at age 43, in 2002, from an accidental fall from a bicycle. In 2010, Erwin was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease.Erwin became quieter, softer, more gentle as the years progressed; he would learn to tell his children he loved them and would take pains to write notes and send special rocks he found on his hikes, which were becoming more limited but still wonderfully enjoyable. Erwin continued to take photographs of landscape scenes and family moments; he was a fan of California photographer Ansel Adams.Erwin died of pneumonia and lung complications, which were first diagnosed in March at Eden Hospital in Castro Valley, where his family spent many hours at his bedside.He is survived by wife Sandra Herbst of Hayward, daughter and son-in-law Cathy and Paul Mahon of London, Ontario, Canada; daughter and son-in-law Laura Herbst and Joseph Baysdon of Portland, Oregon; daughter Shawna Herbst and fiancé Jon Shaw of Sunnyvale, California; sister Betty Schilling of Milwaukee, Wisconsin; niece Marie Rider of Wauwatosa, Wisconsin; nephew Ed Schilling of Elmhurst, Illinois; and nephew Ron Herbst of Pensacola, Florida.Family and friends are welcome to attend a memorial service at 1 pm on Saturday, April 28, at the Chapel of the Chimes in Hayward.
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