Scott E. Erickson; National Park Employee

Thousand Oaks resident Scott E. Erickson, deputy superintendent of the Santa Monica Mountains Recreation Area, died Wednesday at UCLA Medical Center of complications from a brain tumor. He was 51.

For more than 20 years, Erickson worked for the National Park Service in several capacities. He is best known for designing the Park Service’s fire management program.

“He organized how the Park Service fights fires, basically how you get money and people together to maintain a state of readiness,” said his friend and co-worker, Art Eck. “There are a lot of people throughout the United States that wouldn’t be doing what they’re doing if it wasn’t for Scott Erickson.”

His Park Service career was recognized Wednesday by the state Assembly, which adjourned in Erickson’s name.

Eck, superintendent of Santa Monica Mountains Recreation Area, said Erickson was responsible for helping to dramatically increase staffing and funding for the local recreation area.

Erickson was instrumental in planning the Backbone Trail through the western portion of the mountains and finding donors to build the $1.2-million trailhead facility at Rancho Sierra Vista/Satwiwa in Newbury Park, Eck said.

“He was so energetic and intelligent and creative,” said Jean Bray, another co-worker.

Erickson’s Park Service career started when he signed on in the 1970s to work as a hot shot, a firefighter who parachutes from a plane to fight fires in remote areas. That position and others took him to Yosemite, Everglades, North Cascades, Sequoia and Kings Canyon national parks.

He also worked for the Bureau of Land Management in Alaska and the Park Service’s national fire center in Boise, Idaho.

Erickson was born March 3, 1948, in Oakland. His father was an executive of a major corporation so the family lived in several cities when Erickson was a boy, including locations in Spain.

He graduated with a bachelor’s degree in economics from the University of Maryland. At the time of his death, Erickson had been teaching a course on how to attack large fires, Eck said.

Erickson was an avid mountain climber and hiker.

He is survived by his son, Bryce Erickson of Placerville; his parents, Lloyd and Doris Erickson of Rocklin in Placer County; and two brothers,, Ross Erickson of Boise and Randy Erickson of Prescott, Ariz.

Eck said that the family had not selected a funeral home, but that arrangements would be private.

The Park Service will hold a memorial ceremony for Erickson’s friends and co-workers in June at a private site in the Santa Monica Mountains that Erickson enjoyed.