Eric Soares – husband, father, brother, son, and good friend to so many people – passed away on February 1, 2012, of a sudden cardiac event at Stanford Hospital while awaiting surgery to repair an aortic aneurysm.
Eric Soares at a family reunion in 2006. As usual, he was the life of the party.
Eric was a great individual. His strong personality and his desire to live life to the fullest left a major impact on thousands of people, from his family members to his friends to the myriad college students who took his classes at CSU East Bay.
Eric was truly loved and admired – and he is truly missed.
Eric’s Early Years
Eric grew up in a rural area just outside Anderson, California. His love for outdoor adventure began there as he explored the nearby hills and waterways with his younger brother Marc. He had leading roles in several plays at Anderson High School and was a member of the swim team. He also really enjoyed playing sandlot football.
Eric’s Education
After a three-year stint in the Navy, Eric earned an A.A. degree from Shasta College. He then attended Sacramento State University, where he earned a B.A. and an M.A. in Communications. He completed his Ph.D. in Communications at Bowling Green State University in Ohio.
Eric’s Teaching Career
Eric had a highly successful 25-year career teaching business communication and marketing at California State University, East Bay, where he won awards for his outstanding teaching. He retired in 2008 and was soon honored as a professor emeritus.
Eric’s Family
Eric was well loved by his family members: mother Mozelle, sister Camille, brothers Marc and John, daughter Micaila, granddaughter Paisley, son-in-law Zoey, son Alex, stepson Nick, sister-in-law Patty, John’s life-partner Stephanie, nieces Dionne, Kirby, and Kasey, nephew Jake, and numerous cousins, aunts, and uncles.
Eric with his sister Camille, mother Mozelle, and brothers John and Marc at his daughter Micaila's wedding in 2007.
Eric married his beloved wife Nancy in 1996. They created a life of adventure and exploration from their home in El Granada, California before moving north to settle in Ashland, Oregon in 2008. They studied martial arts together and they hiked, traveled, and explored the western United States, Hawaii, and the nearby Pacific Ocean.
Eric and Nancy Soares took many trips to the Hawaiian Islands.
Eric's daughter Micaila, son-in-law Zoey, and granddaughter Paisley. Eric was absolutely delighted by Paisley!
Eric and the Martial Arts
Eric’s interest in the martial arts began when he was in his early 20s. He first earned a brown belt in Judo, and then later studied kung fu for two years. After meeting and marrying Nancy, he took up her martial art: Dan Zan Ryu jujitsu. They went to the dojo together, trained together, and spent hundreds of hours discussing and analyzing specific techniques and martial arts philosophy. Eric and Nancy began their jujitsu study at the KoDenKan Institute in the Bay Area and then expanded their studies by studying Ten Chi Do with Sifu Hung Lee. Once they moved to Ashland, they were warmly welcomed at the Medford Judo Academy, where they continued their jujitsu journey under the guidance of Professor Larry Nolte. Both Eric and Nancy hold second-degree black belts in jujitsu.
Eric Soares and his wife Nancy in jujitsu uniforms at the 50th anniversary of the Medford Judo Academy in 2010.
Eric as Sea Kayaker Extraordinaire
Eric formed the world-famous Tsunami Rangers sea-kayaking adventure group with his best friend Jim Kakuk in 1985. The group soon expanded to include other serious kayakers. The Tsunami Rangers delight in high-adrenaline activities like surfing big waves and exploring rock gardens and sea caves.
Eric Soares doing what he loved most.
In large part due to Eric’s marketing and PR efforts, the Tsunami Rangers were featured on National Geographic Explorer, Outdoor Life Network, MTV, and the Discovery Channel. Eric also taught kayaking workshops and gave talks on kayaking to groups around the country and around the world, including Canada and New Zealand. He was well-known for his dynamic and entertaining speaking style, and for his ability to spout spontaneous jokes, many at his own expense. Most recently he taught “How to Paddle the Open Coast” at MacKerricher Park near Fort Bragg last August.
In addition to writing dozens of articles for sea kayaking magazines, Eric is the author of Confessions of a Wave Warrior and co-author of Extreme Sea Kayaking with fellow ranger Michael Powers . He also helped make several Tsunami Rangers DVDs, including Kayaking Ocean Rock Gardens and The Tsunami Rangers’ Greatest Hits.
The Tsunami Rangers on an Oregon coast expedition. Eric is second from left, and his wife Nancy is right beside him.
On Eric and Life…
Eric only lived 58 and a half years, but he lived more in his too-short life than most ordinary people would live in five lifetimes.
Eric’s body is gone, but his spirit, his teachings, and his infectious joy live on in all of us who were lucky enough to know him.
If you like, you can make a contribution to the Eric Soares Scholarship Fund.
Please Share Your Thoughts…
Feel free to share anything you’d like about Eric in the comments below. It can be how you felt about Eric, a way Eric touched your life, or a funny or exciting story about Eric.
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I hope there is a wild blue yonder on the other side and that for Eric it is truly wild, blue, deep, and wet – and that any vastness there crashes against an equally wild shoreline somewhere, where benefits might still accrue from wearing a little bit of upper body armor. Eric influenced my life in ways I’m still comprehending: he abetted a developing, wilder style of coastal kayak-play early on in the 80′s as I transitioned to dynamic ocean water from river but, he also communicated to my then young heart and mind the whole notion to “grok” the coastal experience, if not of the whole of life itself – just to take it all in as one passes through, to inhale deeply the whole experience, the mystery of it all, the surrealism found in say, an energetic surf zone; the simplicity of fun itself to be had any time, any place where there was a freedom to be enjoyed and even relished; that there was safety to be taken seriously in all this with a responsibility that comes when pursuing risk; and that there is an essential individualism allowed, even encouraged amongst sea paddlers both on the water and off. And to never discount camaraderie and team synergies; mostly, as I followed Eric’s life in later years, was the commitment to yourself and those around you to just deliberately keep paddling forward through all the difficulties and problems that sweep through one’s little section of shoreline in this rather short life. As I try to pass some of these notions and realizations on to my own two adventure-loving teenagers, Eric’s legacy and positive influence may ripple outward in ways he perhaps never anticipated…
Beautiful comment, Doug. Thank you.
Nancy,
There are perhaps intangible aspects of love born in meaningful relationships that survive beyond time. Those pictures of you and Eric in Hawaii not so long ago, so romantic together – and so freely shared with blog readers, remind me now of this poem by Robert Frost:
I Could Give All To Time
To Time it never seems that he is brave
To set himself against the peaks of snow
To lay them level with the running wave,
Nor is he overjoyed when they lie low,
But only grave, contemplative and grave.
What now is inland shall be ocean isle,
Then eddies playing round a sunken reef
Like the curl at the corner of a smile;
And I could share Time’s lack of joy or grief
At such a planetary change of style.
I could give all to Time except – except
What I myself have held. But why declare
The things forbidden that while the Customs slept
I have crossed to Safety with? For I am There,
And what I would not part with I have kept.
Oh, Doug, that brought tears to my eyes. You know, I read Robert Frost to Eric in the ICU – he found it very soothing. Frost is one of my favorite poets. The road less travelled… Thank you so much for your lovely comments – connecting with people via the blog has been so healing for me. Along those lines, I hope you’ll enjoy the next post “The Quest for the Magical Healing Pool” scheduled for Monday, April 30. Keep in touch:)
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