AUGUSTA – Erik Klokholm, 84, a former resident of Thornton Oaks in Brunswick, passed away Feb. 12 at the Maine Veterans’ Home after a long illness.

He was born on March 13, 1922, in Nykobing, Denmark, the son of John and Carla Ingebord (Klein) Klokholm and moved to the United States as a young boy. He graduated from Brooklyn Technical High School in the electrical group.

He served in the Coast Guard during World War II from 1941 to 1946. On Sept. 24, 1943, he married Helen Scarci in Rockland. After his discharge, he attended the University of Maine and was a graduate of MIT, Class of 1951, with a bachelor of science degree in physics and in 1960, earned a Ph.D. in physics from Temple University in Pennsylvania.

From 1951 to 1959, he worked with the Franklin Institute Laboratories for Research and Development. He was an associate professor of physics at SUNY College of Ceramics, Alfred University in New York, from 1961 to 1962. He was also a research staff member at Thomas J. Watson Research Center, IBM Corp. in Yorktown, N.Y., until 1973. He transferred to the Manufacturing Research Laboratory as manager of the Thin Film Head Technology Group and later as manager of the Advanced Materials and Contamination Technology Group. He was also associate editor of IBM Journal of Research & Development from 1984 to 1989.

In 1997, he and his wife moved from Stamford, Conn., to the Thornton Oakes in Brunswick. He enjoyed sailing, playing squash and photography.

He is survived by his wife of 63 years, a resident of Homestead at Cushing in Cushing; a sister, Lisa McMahon of Inglis, Fla.; nieces and nephews, Margaret Wagner, and her husband, Clayton, of Livermore Falls, James Dunn, and his wife, Mary, of Pepperell, Mass., Frank Dunn of Pepperell, Mass., Nancy Scarci of Hawaii, Frank Scarci of Florida and John Ingalls of New Jersey.