Erik Holbek, Glen Ellen man who fought Nazis in Denmark, dies at 93

Erik Holbek spent part of his childhood in Hamlet’s castle at the eastern tip of Denmark, then served in the Danish resistance during World War II, bombing train tracks laid by the occupying German forces. After immigrating to the United States after the war, he worked as an architect in Santa Rosa, designing stylish homes around Sonoma County.

Holbek, who learned to ride a horse at the age of 65, died of congestive heart failure while asleep at his Glen Ellen home Oct. 30. He was 93.

“He was a man of no pretensions,” said his wife, Mickey Cooke, describing Holbek as a man happiest wearing old clothes and working with a chainsaw on their 13-acre rural property. “He had a great love of people.”

The son of a Danish army colonel, Holbek lived for seven years at Kronberg, a Renaissance castle on the coast that housed the Danish military academy and also is known as Elsinor, the setting for William Shakespeare’s tragedy “Hamlet.”

He was 19 when the German army occupied Denmark in 1940, and he joined the fire service to avoid being drafted into the Danish army under Nazi control. During the war, his older brother, Kai, ferried Danish Jews in boats to neighboring Sweden, a neutral nation, while his sister, Aase, published an underground newspaper.

By night, Holbek worked with a resistance cell that bombed train tracks until it was broken up by the Nazis, forcing him to live in an attic for six months until Denmark was liberated.

Holbek, who did not take to formal education, also worked during the war as an apprentice in a furniture factory and as a bricklayer while training to become an architect at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts, graduating in 1952. He left Denmark in 1954 because of a lack of opportunity and construction materials to pursue work as an architect.

Holbek worked for architectural firms in New York and San Francisco before moving with his young family to Santa Rosa in 1960, residing on Cherry Street and later at a rustic home on St. Helena Road. As an architect, he “found favor with people who wanted contemporary houses,” Cooke said, designing the first wave of houses built in Oakmont, as well as homes on Cummings Drive and Bennett Ridge Road in Santa Rosa and elsewhere in the county.

He served on Santa Rosa’s design review board and developed a wide circle of professional friends, she said.

Holbek enjoyed camping with his family, hiking in the hills and hosting barbecues at the St. Helena Road home.

Holbek and Cooke were introduced at a dinner hosted by mutual friends in 1978, also attended by her daughter, Mona, who signaled her approval of Holbek. In 1987, the couple moved to Glen Ellen, where they built a house and a horse barn.

Holbek subsequently learned to ride a horse in 10 lessons and bought a $300 horse so he could keep up with Cooke, a lifelong equestrian. The couple spent the next decade horse camping around California with friends.

An avid writer of letters to the editor, Holbek collaborated with environmentalists who defeated PG&E’s plan to build a nuclear power plant at Bodega Head.

In addition to his wife, Holbek is survived by his son, Suren Holbek of Hayfork; stepdaughter, Mona Lindquist of San Anselmo; stepson, Scott Lindquist of Santa Fe, N.M.; five step-grandchildren; and numerous nieces and nephews.

A private memorial will be held. Memorial donations may be made to Habitat for Humanity or Memorial Hospice.