Dale and JoAnn Erickson

Although JoAnn and Dale Erickson are both of Norwegian descent, both born near the end of the Great Depression, and both raised in North Dakota, their early years growing up were very different.

"I was a 'city boy,' raised in Grand Forks [population 21,000]," Dale says. "I grew up on a farm," JoAnn adds, "near Leonard [population 200] in the Red River Valley, 50 miles south of Fargo."

"My mother taught in one-room country schools before marrying my father in 1936," Dale explains. "They moved to Minneapolis where I was born in 1938. My father worked as an accountant for an insurance company. When his eyesight started to fail, we moved to Grand Forks to be closer to relatives. He had a difficult time finding employment, but he earned enough to keep the house warm and food on the table. My mother worked at a nursing home as an administrator for many years. Money was tight, so if I wanted something I had to earn money for it."

"My father grew up a cowboy and loved riding horses," JoAnn fondly remembers. In 1935, her parents married and bought a farm and cattle ranch on the Sheyenne River. "My father was a gentle giant. He was so proud of his beautiful Hereford cattle. To this day, when I see a herd, I get so lonesome for back on the ranch.

"My mother was a Sunday school teacher, president of the Ladies Aide Society, and worked at everything that came along. She spoke Norwegian which I spoke when I was little. They were very hardworking, very honest. We always had plenty to eat. We always got places on time. We didn't do a lot of going, though, just church and town."

Most rural areas across the state had neither electricity nor running water. It wasn't until 1939, the year JoAnn was born, that the nearby town of Leonard was electrified, and another 14 years before most farms finally had electricity, making conveniences like indoor plumbing, refrigeration, radio, and even television possible.

"It was pretty quiet in the country," JoAnn recalls. "We did have social outlets. There was 4-H, church and Sunday school. That pretty much took care of our social life."

School for Dale and JoAnn was also very different. Dale went to Grand Forks Public Schools all twelve years. "I didn't have to walk more than a half block to my schools. I was good at math and science, and I liked electronics. I enjoyed music and was in band and choir. I loved swimming and boating. I met a lot of friends there which I've had for many, many years."

JoAnn went to a one-room prairie schoolhouse. "There was one teacher and six children," JoAnn explains. "Another boy and I were the only first and second graders, and one child was in each of the other grades. We were all friends, obviously, because that's who we had to play with."

"There were times in the winter when the roads were so bad," JoAnne remembers, "it was not uncommon for us to bundle up, and my father would hitch the horses to the sled and take us miles to school. There were at least one or two weeks each winter in those early years that we just plain didn't go to school."

In the spring, there was massive flooding of the Sheyenne River—seven floods by the time Dale and JoAnn had finished high school, including the historic flood of 1950.

When it came time for JoAnn to go to high school, her parents sent her to Oak Grove Lutheran High in Fargo, a private boarding school fifty miles from her home. "I did very well in high school," JoAnn notes. "I was on the debate team and in other activities. I was one of four class speakers at graduation in 1957.

"I had a state scholarship at Valley City State Teachers College. After one year, I would get a provisional certificate to teach in a one-room school. I took my entrance exams the day I arrived. The next day, I was picked as one of the people to do six weeks of student teaching. I had never been to a college class, and I was out teaching in a small village school with one grade. Then I went back and started college."

JoAnn taught in one-room schools for several years while she finished her bachelor's degree in science in 1962, taught in Minnesota, and then middle school language arts and social studies at Valley Junior High in Grand Forks. In 1965, a colleague asked JoAnn if she'd like to go on a blind date with his brother. It changed her life.

"My goal was to pursue electronics after graduating from high school in 1956," Dale says. "I started at UND in Grand Forks but I wasn't ready. So in 1957, I entered the Navy. I truly loved it. I loved the sea. I was an electronics technician responsible for radar and communications." After discharge, Dale worked as a communications engineer in Philadelphia. In 1963, his father died suddenly from a stroke while sitting at his desk at work. He was just 52 years old.

After working for several years as a communications engineer in the Arctic, maintaining the Distant Early Warning (DEW) Line, a communication surveillance network, Dale returned to UND where he met JoAnn Vangsness, who was completing her master's degree in education. "Dale had a magnetic personality," JoAnn remembers. "It was one of those 'love at first sight,' I think. The rest is history. I was teaching in Grand Forks while he finished his degree. We were married in 1967."

"There's something in our genes that says we're always looking for another opportunity, or we're always ready for another challenge," Dale says. "We're not happy just staying in one place."

The couple moved to Minnesota where Dale was an engineer in telecommunications and where their daughter and son were born." "I substituted teaching a little bit" while there, JoAnn recalls.

"We moved to Clear Lake, Iowa, one of the only lakes in the state," Dale says. "That's where I bought my first sailboat. After a year, we were ready for some more changes."

The Erickson family moved to Pennsylvania and then to Fort Worth, TX, where they resided for 15 years, long enough to be "Texanized." "We wanted to be native Texans," Dale says of the state they came to love. "The Texas spirit. Unbelievable." JoAnn got her Texas teaching certificate and taught Texas history. "It was my favorite thing I've ever taught."

"During the years we were in Texas," Dale explains, "I became more and more interested in the business aspects of manufacturing and design." He continued his education at the University of Texas, earning graduate degrees in Business and Electrical Engineering. "I had an opportunity to go to a big company in New Mexico, so we picked up lock, stock, and barrel and moved to Albuquerque where I was responsible for the overall operation of an international telecommunications company."

"I didn't teach after Texas," JoAnn remembers. "I missed it at first, but I was a docent at the Museum of National History & Science and the Museum of Pueblo Indian Cultures in Albuquerque."

When Dale's company merged and moved to Florida, he transferred to the medical electronics division. He had offices in California and in New Jersey, but his base was in Cary, NC. "It was the magnet that got us to North Carolina in 1994," JoAnn says. "We loved it."

When Dale retired, the couple built a house on a lake at Seven Lakes West where they lived for 15 years, and where Dale sailed his boat. They've traveled extensively in Asia, Europe, and Central America; took river cruises in Europe and Portugal; and of course, visited Norway and the Scandinavian countries. They also became active in their church where Dale sang in the choir; and JoAnn became a Master Gardener volunteer.

"Finally, it was time to downsize," Dale says. "We've never gone back to where we lived before. We've always moved forward. During our nearly sixty years of married life, we've always had chances to go to different opportunities, but we've always thought strategically. What makes sense? That's when we moved to a retirement community in Southern Pines in 2018. We wanted to be close to all the activities that Pinehurst and Southern Pines had to offer. And it's a nice place to live and we've enjoyed it."

"Healthcare never entered our mind when we were thinking about where to move in retirement," Dale explains. "We'd never been concerned about our health, but we are now. I've had issues with my heart and they've all been corrected. JoAnn has been involved with pulmonary medicine, so we've used the FirstHealth facilities and seen firsthand what is available.

"We always remind ourselves, particularly now, how fortunate we are to live within ten minutes of a hospital and a clinic, and finding a parking place and walking 10 or 15 feet. That's unusual. And to go to some of these places and to be greeted by name. That's what really impresses me. We are so fortunate to live in this type of community.

Shortly after the couple moved to Southern Pines, a member of The Foundation of FirstHealth invited them to attend the "I CARE FOR YOUR BRAIN" series. "We were both really impressed with Dr. Karen Sullivan and the FirstHealth people we met," Dale says. "She got us interested in FirstHealth. We joined the Foundation's Scroll Society, and we now support the Heart, Cancer and Neuro CARE Funds, as well as FH Hospice. FirstHealth has got to have good, trained people, so we also support FirstFutures and the Match Us If You Can Challenge."

"The first reason we support FirstHealth," Dale explains, "is because it's local. The people who operate it live here. That's the big thing. Second, when I was growing up, my father taught me about value. When I apply that to FirstHealth and the Foundation, I ask, 'Are my contributions returning value to me?' I'm happy about what I'm contributing because I see that the money is not wasted. It's going to good use—beyond maintenance activities. I see it going on to grow and improve and increase care.

"FirstHealth has wide demographics, a lot of people of different socioeconomic needs in the general community, from infants to old people, from poor people to rich, they all need health care and it's all provided here.

"Another thing is their ability to listen to people. A lot of people don't really know what's wrong with them other than they don't feel good. But they have a place to go where they can communicate with a health care professional who listens to what they say about their physical ailments and then provides guidance as to where they can get the best care at FirstHealth.

They also listen to the problems some people have, asking them, 'What's on your mind? What's weighing on you?' 'I can't pay my rent.' 'I don't have money for food.' A lot of these people are really stressed, and stress affects the physical. But if they can somehow communicate that to FirstHealth people, they can get some guidance to things external to health care but that are still involved in keeping them healthy. FirstHealth providers help connect these patients with services. I see that as an exciting opportunity.

"I like Mickey Foster, FH CEO. He's increasing value to the community by focusing on the patients and on the employees. He promotes the employees all the time. It makes them feel good and proud to work here. Paying attention to the employees increases value over and over. He's also very concerned about the patients and their safety. And he's a good money manager.

"The last thing is I trust these people. We know the people at the Foundation personally. They know us by name. I feel good about investing in an endowment because it's going to increase in value and it's going to help a lot of people who need health care for a long period of time.

"I look forward to continued good management, and to more and more comprehensive health care for the community. I see continued recognition of what the needs are of the people who live here, and I see FirstHealth responding accordingly.

"We're really happy with our health care and with the services we have. We don't have to wait. It's here."