In Remembrance: Erica Whittlinger’70

Credit: Beloit College ArchivesErica Whittlinger’70 lived a rich and varied life with a successful career, followed by the dream job she’d always wanted. She came to Beloit College at age 16, where she majored in economics and international relations and fell in love with skiing. After graduation, she earned an MBA at Vanderbilt University and went to work in Minneapolis as a planning analyst at a Fortune 500 company. In 1984, she founded her own financial services firm.

She achieved renown as a commentator on National Public Radio’s award-winning nationally-syndicated program, “Sound Money,” where for 20 years she presented educational segments on investments and personal finance, and answered listener calls. As a true entrepreneur, Whittlinger reached out to help others build their entrepreneurship skills, teaching a class at Metropolitan State University and founding the Salt Lake City chapter of the Women Presidents’ Organization.

She kept in touch with the college, returning as a speaker in Jerry Gustafson’63’s entrepreneurship classes. “Besides her classroom visits, she made significant donations to Beloit’s developing program. She was a pillar of support for more than 30 years,” Gustafson says. “Not only was she an exemplary entrepreneur, her investment in us turned us in a direction that has become so important now.”

After retiring in 2002, Whittlinger went from advising people about their money and investments to helping them find more joy, vitality, and “fire” in their lives. She co-authored The Refirement Workbook in 2008. She loved downhill skiing and spent winters in Park City, Utah. As part of her own “refirement,” she became a professional ski instructor there, teaching private and adult group ski lessons. She found many challenges and surprises, often because most of her colleagues on the slopes were millennials and her supervisors Gen-Xers. After decades of being her own boss, she had to learn how to be an employee, working for and with others from different generations. The highlight of her new career, she said, was that not only was she in the natural splendor of the world all day, she was a part of it.

She passed away in April in Minnetonka, Minnesota, at the age of 74. In addition to skiing, she was passionate about animal welfare, global travel, and opera. She is survived by cousins and their children, and many friends from all walks of life.