Early life Erik Jonsson was born on 6 September 1901 in the
Brooklyn borough of
New York City. His parents, John Peter and Ellen Charlotte (Palmquist) Jonsson, were both born in
Sweden and independently migrated to the
United States in the prior decade. Both were naturalized citizens. Jonsson was an only child. The family moved in 1912 to
Montclair,
New Jersey, where at the age of sixteen Jonsson graduated from
Montclair High School. He was a graduate of
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI), class of 1922 earning a degree in
mechanical engineering, where he was a member of
Alpha Tau Omega. Jonsson married Margaret Fonde in
Knoxville, Tennessee on 8 February 1923 and together they had three children.
Business career Jonsson began his career in 1922 at
Alcoa as a
rolling mill apprentice, and advanced to the position of manufacturing superintendent of an Alcoa subsidiary, the Aluminum Index Company. He held the position from 1923 to 1927. In 1927 he left Alcoa and entered the auto business attempting a
Pontiac dealership, returning to Alcoa in 1929 as a sales engineer.
Geophysical Service Inc. During Jonsson's last year at Alcoa,
J. Clarence Karcher, the husband of Mrs. Jonsson's cousin, occasionally asked Jonsson's assistance with expediting materials orders for a start-up company he had co-founded with petroleum geologists Eugene McDermott and Everette DeGolyer,
Geophysical Service Incorporated, a pioneering provider of
seismic exploration services to the
petroleum industry. In June 1930 Karcher offered Jonsson a job managing the manufacture of seismic instruments at Karcher's company lab in
Newark, New Jersey, and in July Jonsson again left Alcoa.
Civic activities Jonsson was a strong advocate for education, serving or leading on the boards of many educational institutions and created alliances to improve local educational facilities. Jonsson was a founder of the
Southwest Center for Advanced Studies, which became the
University of Texas at Dallas in 1969. Jonsson was the first president of the Dallas Chamber of Commerce, as well as president of the powerful civic group, the Dallas Citizen's Council. Memorial services attended by several ex-Mayors of Dallas were held for him on September 5 at Dallas's Highland Park United Methodist Church. ==Legacy==