Edward W. Ekstrom
1928 -2021
USCG
WWII
Edward Waldemar Ekstrom, was born on February 29, 1928, in Chicago, to A. Waldemar and Kerstin (Stromberg) Ekstrom.
His father taught him soccer and coached his junior soccer team of the Viking Soccer Club. He attended Lane Tech High School, where he played on the varsity soccer team, and graduated in 1945.
After graduation, he answered the call of his country and enlisted in the U.S. Coast Guard, celebrating his 18th birthday aboard a train heading to the Coast Guard Training Center in Alameda, California. Following the War, he enrolled in Northwestern University's School of Business, graduating with a degree in business administration in 1951.
In the summer of 1949, he met June Broberg at a Swedish picnic; they were married on September 16, 1950, and raised three children in the Barrington area.
In 1952, he founded the Edward W. Ekstrom Company, General Contractors, a construction business that he ran until his retirement in 1993. Throughout his career, he built numerous churches, schools, commercial buildings, and custom residential homes, including his Barrington home.
Ekstrom loved his home in Timberlake, as it overlooked a pond that was the perfect size for ice skating and playing hockey. He and several other enthusiastic fathers from nearby neighborhoods formed the North Barrington Hockey League, the first organized hockey league in the Barrington area, and his pond became the original home ice for the Timberlake Hockey Team.
In addition to ice skating, he enjoyed downhill and cross-country skiing. As a septuagenarian, he became the subject of a local newspaper article for annually "logging over 1,300 miles on his in-line skates, 300 miles on his bicycle, and 100 miles cross-country skiing." He also enjoyed sailing and racing his Sunfish sailboat, as well as all things Scandinavian.
Veteran Edward Ekstrom passed away on July 23, 2021. He is buried with wife in Evergreen Cemetery in Barrington.
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Remember. Honor. Teach.
Courtesy of Signal Hill Chapter, National Society Daughters of the American Revolution.