Faculty Spotlight
MR. ROBERT ERIKSEN by David Lynn-Hill (’69)
 Üuber-MHS history instructor, Bob Eriksen, is among faculty mentioned if you read the message boards on classmates.com with postings like: “Mr. Eriksen was one of the best (and toughest) teachers I ever had.” Those that continued their education after graduating learned that Bob prepared us beyond the typical expectations of most high school students. After a 4-year stint in the navy (signature crew-cut) and graduating from UCLA in ‘57, he chose his 1st (and only) teaching post at MHS. Coincidentally, his Dad had taught English at MHS for a couple years before Bob was hired. He was inspired to come to MHS in part by balmy sea breezes wafting up from El Porto and Dockweiler. That lured him and his wife to settle in Torrance. There, they raised 3 children, now all in their 40’s. During his last 20 years at MHS, he filled his passion for cycling by biking back and forth from home to Morningside to teach every day! Bob’s 1st year was a combination of history and civics classes, as well as pitch hitting in Spanish for another faculty member on maternity leave. After 3 years of the combined history/civics assignment, he decided history was his forte. He felt as if he were asking for the world, but when he met with Assistant Principal, Dave Reiss, inquiring if he could make his assignment all American history courses; the rest, they say, is history. Bob instructed, cajoled and inspired juniors to learn about American history until his retirement in ‘89. Given all those years of historical service at MHS maybe Mr. Eriksen should be made the Monarch historian emeritus! Sadly, Charlotte his wife of 55 years and the “love of his life” passed away on January 29, 2009 of pancreatic cancer.
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