After a yearlong battle with lymphoma, Erik Orav died peacefully at his Guerneville home on April 22.
Born in New York City and raised in Venezuela, he pursued his knack for languages and lifelong passion for art at institutions in Maine, Paris, and New York. Erik was fluent in Spanish, French, Italian, and his parents' native Estonian. He had an encyclopedic knowledge of Western, Asian, and tribal arts, antiques, and antiquities.
In 1991, Erik moved from New York to San Francisco. He relocated to Guerneville in 1994 after receiving a position at Food For Thought, the Sonoma County AIDS Food Bank. Among other duties, he served as interpreter for FFT's numerous monolingual Hispanic clients. As a man living with HIV since the early 1980s, his wisdom, empathy, and experience greatly comforted newly diagnosed clients. Erik also used his background in art and antiques when he began working at Sebastopol's FFT Antiques in 2010.
He is survived by his mother Helle and his brother Hiller, both of Florida; and his partner Eric Keller, of Guerneville. A memorial celebration of his knowledge, wit, grace, and humanity will be held at 3 p.m. June 23 at Santa Rosa's Center for Spiritual Living. For additional information, e-mail queries to mailto:[email protected].