Solveig Grønning Ericson
(1953-2025)
Solveig Grønning Ericson passed away at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts, on September 6, 2025.
She was born in Kobe, Japan, on January 5, 1953, the daughter of Lutheran missionaries from Norway. Aside from a few years in Norway, she spent her childhood in Japan and attended a Norwegian school in Kobe until ninth grade. She then attended Canadian Academy in Kobe, where she met her classmate and future husband, Steven Ericson, and graduated as valedictorian in 1971.
She earned a BS in Biology from Grand Valley State University in Michigan in 1975 and married Steven in Oslo, Norway, the same year. She then attended Boston University School of Medicine, earning an MD in 1985 and a PhD in Physiology in 1987.
After completing internship and residency in internal medicine at St. Elizabeth’s Hospital in Brighton, Massachusetts, she began a fellowship in hematology/oncology at the Brown University-affiliated hospitals in Rhode Island. She completed the fellowship at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center in Hanover, New Hampshire, where she did research in immunology.
From 1995 to 2007, she worked at West Virginia University Health Sciences Center, becoming director of the Blood and Marrow Transplant (BMT) Program in 1999. Her achievements at WVU included developing and publishing educational materials for BMT patients and caregivers, founding the WVU Hematologic Malignancy Program, and achieving full accreditation of the BMT Program.
From 2007 to 2023, she was a medical director in the bio-pharma industry, first in New Jersey and then in Massachusetts. Among her many contributions to the pharmaceutical field, she created the logistical platform for the first FDA-approved CAR T-cell therapy for treatment of juvenile leukemia, and she further developed the oral chemo Gleevec, which she later took for her own treatment after being diagnosed with cancer in early 2023.
She enjoyed reading Norwegian mystery novels, baking cardamom rolls, gardening, and visiting family in Norway and Japan. She is remembered by her family, friends, patients, and colleagues for her warmth, calmness, humor, gracefulness, and intelligence. She was humble despite her many accomplishments.
She is survived by her husband, Steven Ericson of Arlington, MA, and Hanover, NH; her children and their partners, Kjell Ericson and Sayaka Iwamoto Ericson of Kyoto, Japan, Evan Ericson and Nic Rios of Brooklyn, NY, and Kristine Ericson and Benjamin Walters of New Haven, CT; her grandson Steinar Shinnosuke Ericson of Kyoto, Japan; her siblings Turid Grønning of Mercer Island, WA; Berit Grønning Nielsen of Lillesand, Norway; and Terje Grønning of Auli, Norway. She was predeceased by her parents, Arne and Elsa Grønning of Oslo, Norway, and by her brother Nils Jørgen Grønning of Oslo, Norway.
A memorial service will be held at University Lutheran Church, 66 Winthrop Street, Cambridge, MA, on September 27 at 2:00 pm. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made in her honor to Doctors Without Borders.