Eldon E. Ehrsam

Eldon Edward Ehrsam passed away peacefully on February 10, 2025, in the place he loved and called home for fifty-five years, the Santa Ynez Valley. Eldon was eighty-eight.

Eldon lived a full life. He was born on July 8, 1936, on a forty-acre farm in Bern, Kansas, to Lloyd and Elma. The farm had everything a young boy would want: a pond for fishing, horses to ride, livestock to raise, and crops to take to market.

But his talent and love of mathematics lured him from the farm and called him to Kansas University where he obtained his degree in Aerospace Engineering. There he also met the love of his life, Clara, when they both worked in the catering department.

In 1962, opportunity called, and Eldon and Clara packed up the car and moved to sunny California with their toddler daughter, Susie, and infant son, Jeff. They settled in Corona and Eldon began his civil service career with the US Navy at Point Mugu. While supporting his young family, he also obtained his master’s degree in Physics through UCLA. The young couple enjoyed the So-Cal life.

There are some great pictures of Eldon sitting on a surfboard on the Malibu beach, and he was quite the accomplished roller-skater. But in 1965, opportunity called again and Eldon accepted a civil-service job with the Air Force at Vandenberg Airforce Base (now Vandenberg Space Force Base) where he specialized in telemetry and radar systems. The family moved to Santa Maria on the beautiful Central Coast of California. Son John was born during this time.

The city life was not for Eldon, however, and a more rural lifestyle called. In 1969, with son Brian on the way, the family moved to beautiful Santa Ynez to a ranch style home on an acre of land. He kept horses, some egg-laying hens, and a garden that was the envy of the neighborhood. He delighted in sharing the vegetables he grew with friends at the YMCA and the Senior Center. He also found time to be an assistant scoutmaster and took his sons on many hikes to Figueroa Mountain, the Russian River, and the Sierras.

He and Clara loved to ballroom dance at the Madonna Inn and often went there to celebrate their anniversary. Eldon retired in 2000 with thirty-eight years of civil service. After retirement, he ran the neighborhood water board for a bit and expanded his garden. Eldon enjoyed fifty-five years in this home.

Eldon is survived by his loving wife of sixty-six years, Clara, daughter Susie White and her husband, Gary, Jeffrey Ehrsam and his wife, Mekala, son John, son Brian, and brother Layth.