Eric H. J. Stahlhut ’87 died on June 9, 2014, in Angola, Indiana.
He was born on October 20, 1965, in Jackson, Miss., and graduated from Lutheran High School North.Vice president of Alpha Rho Upsilon fraternity, he graduated from Bowdoin magna cum laude, a dean’s list student and James Bowdoin Scholar. He went on to earn a juris doctor cum laude from St. Louis University in 1991 and a master of laws in labor, with distinction, from Georgetown University Law Center in 1992. He worked as a lawyer at Barnes & Thornburg and was selected for inclusion in the Best Lawyers in America for four consecutive years. He was a frequent presenter and lecturer on labor and employment issues to many local chambers of commerce, industrial guilds and the Indiana State Bar Association. He was a board member and membership director for the Michiana Human Resource Association.
Eric called me his best friend. ( Kenton Kloos) we met on the Tower tennis courts in Florissant, Mo, when he was 15 yrs old. A great player! When we went to TGI Fridays, he was so mature and confident, he was served booze at age 16! He then told me he either wanted to be a priest or a lawyer.
After 25 years of excelling at Barnes n Thornburgh, he said he was tired of the ” game ” of lawyering, and he regretted not being a priest. He was a kind person, and loved the St. Louis Blues hockey team, then switching to a Red Wings fan, living in Fort Wayne, it was much closer. Many times he paid my way for trips to Miami, Denver, Detroit, San Francisco, Dallas, Buffalo, D.C, Anaheim, Las Vegas, Columbus, Nashville, Chicago, to watch the Red Wings play, since I was a perpetually broke delivery driver.
The weekend drinking bloated him up to 340 pounds at 5′ 11″… No amount of urging to have him quit or slow down had any effect.
I still miss him 8 years later. His former girlfriend, Karla, who left him for a woman a decade before he died, was listed on the life insurance policy, and inherited $5,000,000.
He was nice enough to leave me his 401 K. He told me a few months before his death ..” If I drop, I hope you enjoy the money, buddy.” So I have rode my Gold Wing all over North America and Canada, racking up 432,000 miles, obeying his wish.