Ellen Dawkins, the third of Bill and Martha’s three children, born in Ashland on September 8, 1953, passed away in Eureka on January 6, 2022.

From an early age, she was a gifted and determined athlete, first filling her bedroom with medals and trophies from swim meets around the state of Oregon, despite only being able to train five months each year.

Born into a skiing family with multiple trips to a variety of ski areas, she found a sport in which she excelled. When she was ten years of age, she started racing with the Rogue Snowmen (Mt. Ashland Racing Association [MARA]), where she and her teammate Kathy Keiser dominated their age divisions in meets throughout the West. She along with Kathy and Mitch Danielson became the first MARA skiers to obtain skiing’s highest classification of Junior expert in 1966.

As a sophomore and member of Ashland High School’s first varsity ski team in 1969, she became the first Ashland skier to win the state title. After moving to Gresham, she skied for Reynolds High School’s boys’ team since they didn’t have a girls’ team. After placing third at the metro district meet, an opposing coach thought it unfair to allow a girl on the boys team – this caused her to miss competing in the 1970 state championships the next weekend. Reynolds fielded a girls team the next year and Mt. Ashland hosted state that year. Ellen won her second state title, by 6.3 seconds on her home mountain in 1971.

Chosen to ski with the junior national ski team as a downhill and Giant Slalom specialist in 1969, by the end of her senior year, she felt that while the Olympics was doable, she was not willing to make the sacrifices necessary to fulfill that dream.

She enrolled at Mt. Hood Junior College and she earned a BA from OSU in 1974.

While at MHCC she became the first female to coach the Mt. Hood Race team, as well as coaching for the prestigious Timberline International Summer Racing School.

She then went to Seattle to obtain a certificate in Respiratory Therapy. After interning at hospitals in Seattle and Denver, she became head of Respiratory Therapy department at Valley View Hospital in Glenwood Springs, Colorado in 1979.

Ellie served as Vice-chairman of the American Lung Association of Colorado, West Region and was active in the Colorado Society for Respiratory Care (CSRC). She held nearly every state office, including West Slope Region president and in 1989, was elected president of CSRC.

In 1994, Ellie and two nurses from Valley View Hospital did a medical aid mission to Vietnam, representing a group called “Friendship Bridge.”

In her free time, she modeled for Aspen based Obermeyer skiwear and skied in the weekly Aspen league ski races as the only female on the perennial champions team.

Outgoing and with a vivacious personality, she was a popular figure in the Roaring Fork Valley.

After two marriages, she met the love of her life, Mike Minert in 1995.

Valley View Hospital went through a reorganization in 1996, and Ellie’s position was eliminated. With an offer of a position in Eureka, California, she and Mike, her equal on skis, entered a new chapter in their lives. They bought a house in Eureka with fruit trees and berry bushes, and found a new community of friends. She loved her garden and almost every day, rain or shine, you could find her working outdoors, weeding, creating flower arrangements and harvesting berries in the garden.

She continued her RT practice, establishing a Respiratory Care Program for the five skilled-nursing facilities in Eureka and Fortuna. This resulted in a much lower incidence of acute hospital admissions for the residents of the facilities. After Medicare changed its rules in 1999, she became one of the few respiratory care practitioners in the entire country to work full-time in long-term care. Due to health issues, she retired six months before she passed.

However, she continued playing poker with a group centered around her and her effusive personality up until two weeks before her death. She was a fearsome poker player always using the refrain, “I’m the luckiest girl.”

Ellie lost a kidney in 1995, and with her remaining one failing, she received the gift of one from her brother Chris in 2008. Meeting with her family the day she entered hospice, she was in good spirits considering the circumstances, proud of the life she lived, with her only regret being leaving Mike alone. He was holding her hand three days later when she passed.

She leaves behind Mike and his family, her brothers Michael of Ashland, and Chris (Michelle) and their children Stephanie and Joe and a grand-niece and grand-nephew of Hood River, Oregon. A celebration of her life will be held at Mt. Ashland this summer.

If you’d like to make a donation in her name, please donate to Hospice of Humboldt.

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