Michele Louise's Obituary
Michele Louise Prisk Erquiaga
September 9, 1957 – July 19, 2019
If you asked her, Michele would tell you she was from Chicago. Close, but not quite. She grew up in Libertyville, 40 miles north of the city and a friendlier place, a place still surrounded in those days by fields and farms and prairie: good country—straightforward, open, optimistic, welcoming. Like Michele.
After graduating from Western Illinois University, Michele married Bay Area native Steven Erquiaga in 1983. They settled first in Oakland, then in Alameda, and it was there, in 1996, that their daughter, Nina, was born. Steve was a professional musician; Michele pursued music as a sideline, playing flute in Oakland’s Prometheus Symphony Orchestra. She was especially drawn to Stravinsky, a measure of her taste and polish. Determined to share her love of music, she served the San Francisco Symphony’s marketing department for 20 years, eventually as marketing director. After the symphony, Michele reinvented herself as a fundraiser for St. Mary’s College in Moraga, where for 10 years she led efforts to attract and recognize donors. A member of the Commonwealth Club of California, she remained always engaged with the world. She believed we are all our brothers’ keepers. While those of us with schedules half as packed sat watching, she spent a “vacation” in New Orleans, joining the cleanup in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.
Michele was a fearless traveler and preferred less journeyed paths, whether to Spain’s Basque country to trace her husband’s ancestry, or to Midwest suburbs to rendezvous with college friends in improvised sorority weekends. She loved great food and wine.
Diagnosed with cancer in 2009, Michele took aim at it and seemed to have won the fight. It recurred, it ended her life, but it failed to defeat her. For in the memories she leaves and the love she continues to inspire, Michele proves life is always stronger. May we cultivate a kindness like hers and extend it to each other, starting now, this evening, and offering it first to those closest to Michele: Steve and Nina, and her sisters and brothers, Sherrie, Terry, Chad, Jeff, and Paul.
Donations in Michele’s name may be made to
Ovarian Cancer Donation/American Cancer Society.
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