James Paul Erickson

Always eccentric, retired Wichita State University associate professor of English, Jim Erickson, had mixed up a potent brew of credits as a teacher and all-round Wichita community and media personality. You may know him as Dr. Erickson, who arrived on WSU campus in 1964 to teach his academic specialties: Eighteenth Century English Literature, Shakespeare, and Narrative in Literature and Film. A University of Minnesota Ph.D. graduate, he taught for 32 years at WSU before retiring in 1996. A love of the written word and of film had been a constant for him through the years. As a kid, growing up in Minneapolis, he always liked to read and go to the movies. You may recognize him from local television. He was Ol' Flick, the host who introduced movies on KAKE-TV, as well as comic personalities in numerous commercials for local businesses. You may have seen him in the movies: in 1984's "Parade," for example or as the Chinese Kung Fu Master in Wichita's "home-grown" film "King Kung Fu." (Which you can still watch via YouTube, by the way.) You may know him from his movie review commentaries on KMUW. Or from his acting roles in local theater and at Renaissance fairs. You may know him from his parties, especially his Halloween parties, or from the volleyball group he set up to help new people in town meet others and "get into the social whirl," as he explained it. Maybe you know him for his military service in the Marine Corps Reserve, where he was called to active duty in Korea. Or his community service with the American Civil Liberties Union, Friends of the Public Library and the Catholic Care Center. In 2015, Jim received the Distinguished Service Award for his many decades of service in all its various forms and guises. Memorial donations may be made to the Jim Erickson Memorial in care of WSU Foundation to benefit the English Department.

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