Willis “Willie” D. Er­ick­son, 80, passed away Thurs­day, De­cem­ber 8, 2022, at Lilac Springs in Lake Mills. Fu­neral ser­vices will be held on Fri­day, De­cem­ber 16, 2022, at  11  a.m.  at  Hafe­meis­ter Fu­neral Home in Wa­ter­town. Fam­ily and friends may gather at Hafe­meis­ter Fu­neral Home from 9 a.m. until the time of the ser­vice. Bur­ial, with mil­i­tary hon­ors, will take place at the Town of Farm­ing­ton Ceme­tery.  Hafe­meis­ter  Fu­neral  Home  and  Cre­ma­tion Ser­vice is serv­ing the fam­ily. On­line con­do­lences may be made at www.​haf​emei​ster​fh.​com.

Willis “Willie” Dale Er­ick­son was born No­vem­ber 15, 1942, in  Tom­a­hawk,  son  of  Au­gust and Mer­cedes (nee Slater) Er­ick­son. After high school, he served in the United States Army. Willie was em­ployed at APV  Crepaco  as  a  field  ser­vice welder for most of his ca­reer. He was a mem­ber of the Metal Work­ers Union, which merged with the Ma­chin­ist Union, where he served as Pres­i­dent. Willie was a mem­ber of the Grell­ton Con­ser­va­tion Club. He was an avid hunter and fish­er­man. In his younger years, he en­joyed hunt­ing trips in Canada. Willie en­joyed gar­den­ing, wine-mak­ing, can­ning, and bread­mak­ing. Willie loved build­ing, re­pair­ing, and tin­ker­ing, whether it be at his house or the cabin he built, or to help a neigh­bor. He was able to pass on a lot of his skills to his kids and grand­kids.

Willie   is  sur­vived  by  chil­dren,  Jane  (Dan  Rosinger)  Er­ick­son,   Susan  (Guy)  Schrauf­nagel,   Kristin  (Troy)  Mc­Don­ald; grand­chil­dren, James  (Amanda)  Ba­neck  Jr., An­drea (Jon) Koput, Eric (Lind­say) Ba­neck, Sara (Ryan) Tien­haara, Aron (Janene) Ves­per, Amanda (Evan) Miksovsky, and Liam Mc­Don­ald; great-grand­chil­dren, Wyler Koput, Mason Ba­neck, Chloe Ba­neck, Vaughn Koput, Emma Tien­haara, Archer Ba­neck, Jack Tien­haara, Brenna Ba­neck, Pearl Koput, and Tatum Ba­neck; brother, Neal (Molly) Er­ick­son; as well as nieces, nephews, other rel­a­tives and friends. Willie  is  pre­ceded  in  death  by his daugh­ter, Bar­bara in in­fancy; par­ents, Au­gust and Mer­cedes Er­ick­son; great-grand­chil­dren, Zachary  Schmoldt  and  Made­line  Koput; sis­ter,  Mar­i­lyn  in  in­fancy;  broth­ers,  Ger­ald  (Maryann) Er­ick­son and Roland (Yvonne) Er­ick­son.

The fam­ily would like to thank the staff at Lilac Springs and Rain­bow Hos­pice for the com­pas­sion­ate care they pro­vided Willie and their fam­ily.