- Date Of Birth: April 11, 1940
- Date Of Death: November 2, 2014
- State: Colorado
AIVARS “ABES” AKERFELDS
Aivars “Abes” Akerfelds of Littleton died suddenly on Sunday evening, November 2, 2014, he was 74.
Abes was born on April 11, 1940 in Nekrace, Latvia to Janis and Anna Akerfelds. At the age of 5 he and family, including 12 siblings fled to Germany in 1945 to escape the advancing Russian occupation of post WWII. The family spent the next 5 years in various German sponsored Displaced Person Camps. In 1950, he and his family were again sponsored this time by an America Work Program, at which time they traveled by ship to Ellis Island, New York. The Akerfelds family settled in Loveland, Colorado. Times were tough as the family of 14 who spoke fragmented English all lived in a humble 2 bedroom house on a farm just outside of Loveland. However, despite all the hardships they were all so very grateful for their new start in America.
Abes attend school, starting at Moore Junior High and then on to Manual High School . On December 13th, 1958, at the age of 18, he married the love of his life, Gloria Shofner in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Together they had 4 children, Debra, Daniel, Darrel and Duane. The family settled in Littleton in 1974.
Abes worked hard, working multiple jobs to provide for his family. After 22 years of working at Super-Value Warehouse, and being the Teamsters Union Stewart, he retired in 1996. Abe’s considered his biggest success was raising 4 wonderful children. Over the years, despite working multiple jobs, Abes always found time to coach Darrel, Daniel and Duane in baseball, basketball, & football. He was very active in the Littleton sports community as well, including holding the position as President of the Columbine Sports Association from 1975-1981. He coached many young athletes over the years and until his death, he kept in touch with many of them.
In his latter years, he often traveled to Arizona and Las Vegas to watch Carter and Cade play baseball; he rarely missed any of their games, no matter the venue. He had a keen eye for all sports and loved to sit in the bleachers just watching the kids play, however, due to his declining health, he eventually was relegated watching the ball games from his car.
Abes and Gloria suffered the tragic losses of their daughter Debra to a car accident at age of 46 and Darrel, who succumbed to pancreatic cancer at age 50 while coaching the San Diego Padres. Others preceding Abes in his death are brothers Albert, Arturs, Arvids, Alphonz, and Arijis and his parents Janis and Anna.
Abes is survived by six siblings, Ludy, Otis, Sky, Aina, Irma, Pete and Abi. Also surviving are son’s Danny & Duane; seven grandchildren, Dalton Akerfelds, Erin Akerfelds, Paige Trygstad, Thaine Trygstad, Carter Akerfelds, Cade Akerfelds and MacKenzie Akerfelds. In addition, Abes had 3 great grandchildren, Dustin Mathews, Tyler Mathews and Lexie Branan. Abes took so much pride and joy in all of his grandchildren & great grandchildren, including having a very active role in raising Dustin and Tyler.
