Eric Alari Luiker: Father. Husband. Biologist. Cross-country skier. Born March 7, 1965, in Toronto; died June 26, 2024, in Fredericton, of glioblastoma; aged 59.
Eric Luiker.Courtesy of family
As much as he liked lazy summer days at the cottage – surrounded by family, friends and dogs of all kinds – Eric Luiker loved cross-country skiing. He always said that cross-country skiers were the best people in the world. If that’s true, he was the best of the best.
The second son of Juri and Floreida Luiker, Eric was born in Toronto. There was never a lot of money, especially after his father died when he was two years old. But having survived Russia’s and then Germany’s occupation of Estonia in the Second World War, his mother was a strong and formidable woman. She instilled in her sons the importance of hard work and once he was old enough, Eric contributed to the family economy as a paper boy.
Exceedingly bright, if not precocious, he did well in school. On Thursday nights, he took Estonian-language classes. At the University of Guelph, he studied marine biology, eventually earning an MSc in 1992. For more than 20 years, he worked as a government scientist at Environment and Climate Change Canada, conducting summer field work in remote rivers and lakes, including Lake Hazen on Ellesmere Island.
At Guelph, Eric met his intellectual match, the energetic Mary Murdoch from Saint John, N.B. One thing led to the next and together they raised three wonderful skiers: Katie, Juliana and Andy.
As a father, Eric loved planning day trips, vacations and epic birthday parties because he wanted his children to have the childhood that he didn’t have. Every December, he took his kids to a local tree farm to pick the perfect Christmas tree and over the years, there were dogs, hamsters, guinea pigs, geckos and even a saltwater aquarium.
When the Luikers moved to Fredericton in 2001, they jumped headfirst into Wostawea, the local cross-country ski club, where Eric took on different leadership roles, including head of youth lessons in 2006, the one winter it didn’t snow! Undeterred, he organized lessons anyway and, to keep it fun, he led a memorable game of ski soccer on the last remaining patch of snow beneath a couple of large pine trees in Fredericton’s Odell Park.
In 2012, Eric started a team for anyone aged nine to 99 who wanted to ski competitively. Year over year, the team grew, bound by a spirit of camaraderie and a shared commitment to fun. As head coach, he took skiers across the province and across the country, from Whitehorse to Charlottetown and points in between. In the off season, he could be seen leading the team on roller skis along Fredericton’s many paved trails. It was a ton of work – the lessons, races and training camps, to say nothing of the fundraising and grant writing required to keep the team afloat – but it was a passion, too.
To honour his dedication to the sport of cross-country skiing, Nordiq Canada recognized him with its Distinguished Volunteer Award in June, 2022.
Unfortunately, Eric couldn’t accept the award in person. He wasn’t feeling well enough to travel and, a few weeks later, he learned why. But he never complained; instead, he was grateful that he got to watch his kids grow into academically inclined and socially conscious young adults.
With Mary, Katie, Juliana and Andy at his side, Eric lived the last two years of his life on his terms, just as he always had. He travelled the length of the country by train in 2023; he welcomed family and friends to his cottage; he walked his dogs; and, of course, he skied. A few months before he died, he entered the Fredericton loppet. Although his strength was largely gone and his balance was tenuous at best, he was determined to participate and to find joy in the moment. There wasn’t a dry eye in the house when he crossed the finish line.
Cancer didn’t stop him, until it did. I admired him greatly.
Donald Wright was Eric Luiker’s friend.
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