Wallace A. Erickson, 91, of Chicago, a manufacturer of organic chemical materials used by dentists for teeth fillings and impressions, died Saturday, Jan. 25, from a brain aneurysm in Glenbrook Hospital in Glenview. When Mr. Erickson was a young man, his father, a dentist, tried to persuade him to choose the same profession. Instead, Mr. Erickson received his undergraduate and doctorate degrees in organic chemistry from the University of Chicago. Ultimately, Mr. Erickson fulfilled both his dream and his father’s by building a business, Wallace A. Erickson & Co., which provides the organic chemicals used by dentists, said his son, Arthur. In the early 1940s, Mr. Erickson served as an announcer for a radio program broadcast from Western Springs, “Songs in the Night,” hosted by Billy Graham and gospel singer George Beverly Shea. In the early 1960s, he became concerned about what he perceived as a lack of good management by many faith-based ministries and brought together founders and managers of about 80 such ministries every year to talk about good management principles. Mr. Erickson was comfortable with both religion and science playing an equal role in his life. “Science and the Bible were never antagonistic in his opinion,” his son said. “He always said the Bible told us why God did things and science told us how He did them.” Mr. Erickson was a former president of InterVarsity Christian Fellowship and the Evangelical Foundation; served as a director of Fuller Seminary in Pasadena, Calif., and Young Life in Colorado Springs. Other survivors include another son, David; three daughters, Betty, Dorothea Gade and Dolores Johnson; and many grandchildren and great-grandchildren. Services have been held.
