Eric Klaus Polttila

Eric Klaus Polttila was born in Putnam, Connecticut on August 30, 1958 to Finnish immigrants Klaus Henrik Efraim Polttila and Irja Liisa (Toropainen) Polttila. Eric was a dreamer, a romantic, a man with a vision combined with the determination to try and achieve it. Throughout his life, he would always march to the beat of his own drum and you would join him, because he was a, "my way or the highway," kind of guy. He was handy, innovative, and passionate.

 Eric went on to earn his diploma and enter the workforce. Some of his jobs included delivering propane, working on an Air Force Base, and as a peace officer for the New York State Department of Corrections, where he once saved a man's life.

Eric was not only mechanical but crafty- he knew how to hotwire a car. But it was his love of planting giant sunflowers that spoke to who he really was deep inside. He took some college classes as an adult; he loved to pursue his interests in art. He once sailed a flat-bottomed boat down Lake Champlain, from Rouses Point, New York to Assawoman Island, Virginia, where he was shipwrecked in a storm.

Eric was preceded in death by his parents, his sisters, Anita and Leila, and his nephew, Rudy. He is survived by his brothers, Timo and Klaus; his sisters, Eeva, Tina and Kaarina; his children, Sadie, Natasha, Laurel, Rebekah, Erik, Gabriel, Eli and Josiah; 2 stepchildren, 12 grandchildren, nieces, nephews. Throughout his life, he was married three times in his pursuit of love, Anna, Susan, and Mary. He loved them all, in their times, to the best of his ability.

Eric will be missed.

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