Civic leader Jack Ehrig dies at 68
Civic leader and former UW Alumni Association President Jack Ehrig, ’52, died March 23 while vacationing in Arizona. He was 68.
Ehrig was a major force in the Seattle advertising community. He started his career with Honig-Cooper and for many years ran his own agency, Ehrig and Associates. Some of that agency’s most memorable campaigns included Bigfoot ads for PacificBank and humorous Washington State Dairy Farmers spots. The firm was later acquired by EvansGroup, where he served as vice chariman until his retirement in 1995. That year he received the Silver Medal Lifetime Achievement Award from the Seattle Advertising Federation.
Ehrig was also a major force at the UW Alumni Association. He was a founding member of the Columns Advisory Committee and served on that panel from 1989 to 1996. He took a leading role in creating the magazine out of two other University publications, including naming it after the original Columns, a campus humor magazine which ceased publishing in 1957.
As UWM president in 1992-93, Ehrig presided over the first UW Day in Olympia, helped establish alumni clubs for UW Tacoma and UW Bothell, and saw membership levels reach a record at 53,447. His other public service activities included heading both the Washington Athletic Club and the 101 Club. He was a longtime board member of Junior Achievement of Greater Puget Sound and founding co-chairman of the Puget Sound Business Hall of Fame.
He is survived by his wife, Gloria, three children and six grandchildren. Memorials may be made to the Campaign for the Student Athlete, University of Washington, Box 354070, Seattle, WA 98195-4070 or to the 101 Club Foundation, c/o Washington Athletic Club, 1325 Sixth Ave., Seattle, WA 98101.