SUMNER – Ann Ingrid Eriksson, MD, born in Hudson, N.Y. to David and Elizabeth Darwe passed away July 23, 2020 after a brief fight with cancer. She would like to be remembered, in her own words, “as a tomboy who rode my horse bareback and preferred jeans to pretty dresses.”

Ingrid was an incredibly strong and driven woman, who, as a single mother, raised two children and became the first female chief orthopedic resident in Harvard’s residency program at Massachusetts’s General Hospital, graduating in 1982.

In the early ’70s, she received a master’s in endocrinology under Joseph Meites’, PhD, mentor-ship at Michigan State University. She loved research but felt a compelling pull towards the field of medicine. In 1975, she was graduated from Johns Hopkins Medical School. Following that, she worked briefly as a physician for the Cherokee Nation, in North Carolina, before continuing her training with two years in a general surgery residency program at the University of Michigan.

In 1982, she joined Charles Smith, MD, in his practice in Norway. The partnership eventually evolved into her private practice, “Western Maine Orthopaedics, Inc.” When her partners retired, she joined “Central Maine Orthopaedics,” in Lewiston. Following 30 years of practice, she retired and focused on her lifelong dream and passion for farming. She and her husband, John Allen, built their own house, raised animals and grew organic food.

Ingrid loved nature as a conservationist and became an important figure within her community. She organized and gave presentations to the Department of Environmental Protection, in efforts to reduce or eliminate toxic chemical release from local paper mills. Unfortunately, it was a losing battle.

She will be greatly missed by her loving husband John Allen; her sister, Kristina Debye; children, Kristina Handler and Thorsten Zimmerman; nephew David Debye; grandchildren, Nathaniel Handler, Andrew and Kaia Zimmerman; friends, extended family, four collie dogs, and her community at large.

There will be a private celebration of her life at a later date.

If you would like to honor her memory, a donation to the Audubon Society or the American Cancer Society would be most appreciated.