Rev. Ernest Leroy Hansen

Ernie Hansen, 82, retired Covenant pastor, peacefully went home to be with the Lord on April 20, 2016, in Lacey, Washington, after a battle with renal disease.
Ernie was born and raised in Reedley, California. After marrying his high school sweetheart, Barbara Swanson, and graduating from UC Berkeley, he studied at North Park Theological Seminary and graduated in 1961, having served a two-year internship at Mercer Island Covenant Church in Washington State. After graduation from North Park, he and Barbara and their two young daughters left for Nome, Alaska, where they served at radio station KICY. The Hansen family spent six years in Nome, with Ernie managing the radio station for five of those years.

In 1968, Ernie accepted a call to Alum Rock Covenant Church in San Jose, California, and served there until 1975, when he became pastor at Crown Valley Covenant Church in Laguna Niguel, California.

In 1980, a cell group from First Covenant Church in Tacoma, Washington, asked Ernie to become developer pastor for a new congregation the church was planting across Puget Sound’s Tacoma Narrows in Gig Harbor, Washington. Ernie and Barbara spent the next 20 years at the result of that plant, Harbor Covenant Church.
Ernie retired in 1980, and he and Barbara returned for a time to their roots in Kingsburg, California, before moving back to the Pacific Northwest and settling in the Panorama retirement community in Lacey, Washington. They have enjoyed a full and active retirement as involved members at Grace Community Covenant Church in Olympia since that time.

Ernie is survived by his wife of nearly 62 years, Barbara; two daughters and sons-in-law, Lois and John Kimber, and Shirley and Brent Martin; five grandchildren; and two great-grandchildren.