Ted Erikson dies at 93; one of Chicago’s greatest swimmers was first to cross Lake Michigan

Champion swimmer Ted Erikson pictured in 1988. | Sun-Times file

Ted Erikson, one of Chicago’s greatest open-water long-distance swimmers, died Wednesday at the Montgomery Place retirement community at age 93.

In 1961, he triumphed over storms and exhaustion to become the first person to swim across Lake Michigan.

Later, breaking swim records in waters off of San Francisco and in the English Channel, he had to worry about seasickness — and sharks.

His daughter Pam Perkins said the longtime Hyde Park resident wanted his ashes to be scattered in Lake Michigan. He was still swimming until he had a fall a few months ago, which required him to undergo rehab therapy, she said.

Mr. Erikson once told the Sun-Times he got into swimming because “I was working as a research chemist and I needed some exercise.”

Ted Erikson, pictured in 1966.

In 1965, he became the second person to swim the English Channel round-trip — England to France to England — setting a 30-hour–and–three-minute record in the process. The record stood for a decade, until his son, swimmer Jon Erikson, shaved off three minutes.

In 1967, at age 39, the elder Erikson swam approximately 28 miles from the Farallon Islands off of San Francisco — a haven for great white sharks — to the Golden Gate Bridge.

To protect Mr. Erikson, “the captain rode in the boat and had a rifle to shoot at the sharks that were getting close to him,” said his daughter. “The temperature of the water, the tides — it’s supposed to be one of the worst ocean swims.”

A few weeks before Mr. Erikson’s feat, an army colonel swam from the islands to Marin County, a distance that some news media at the time estimated at 21 miles.

Ted Erikson, picuted in 1961.

“He is a legendary marathon swimmer” and a member of the International Marathon Swimming Hall of Fame, said Laura Fletcher, a former senior writer with the Illinois Institute of Technology Alumni Association. She researched and wrote about his career for his former alma mater, where he worked as a chemist at the IIT Research Institute.

In 1961, it took him 36 hours and 37 minutes to swim from McCormick Place to Michigan City, Ind., where he received a hero’s welcome. Squalls pushed him off course and a 37-mile journey stretched to about 43 miles, Fletcher said.

He lost 17 pounds in the process.

After he emerged from the water, he told reporters: “I used to drink martinis and smoke a pack and a half of cigarettes a day.” He said he gave them up a year before his lake crossing.

Young Ted grew up in Montana, where “he rode his horse to school,” his daughter said.

Ted Erikson and his former wife, Loretta, pictured in 1961.

After serving in the Navy, he enrolled at IIT, where he earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in chemistry, Fletcher said.

He worked 21 years at Illinois Tech, and went on to teach math, physics and chemistry at Hammond Technical High School.

There, he told the Sun-Times, he used to tell students: “The starting gun for you went off about 15 years ago. Why are you wasting your time? Go for it.”

Mr. Erikson enjoyed swimming off Promontory Point. Even when he wasn’t up to swimming, he liked to go there and visit other swimmers.

Ted Erikson at an Illinois Tech alumni swim meet, 2016.

In a 1988 interview with the Sun-Times, he described his philosophy as: “Old swimmers never sink. They just keep floating belly up.”

Mr. Erikson kept going to swim competitions, his daughter said, where he’d joke: “There wasn’t anyone else in my age group.”

He remained intellectually curious and social, Fletcher said. “He kept going to swim meets and kept going to breakfast with swimmers,” she said.

“Lady friends, he had tons,” his daughter said.

His son Jon died in 2014 and his longtime companion Diane Richards died in 2004. In addition to his daughter Pam, Mr. Erikson is survived by his former wife Loretta Bacskai, four grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.