Eric Christopher Dalgo

Eric Christopher Dalgo, born January 30, 1990 in Pascagoula, Mississippi died unexpectedly in his sleep at the age of 32 on Wednesday, February 16, 2022 at his residence in D’Iberville, Mississippi. He is survived by his parents Judy and Jerry Dalgo of Ocean Springs, little sister Emily Dalgo, grandmother Mattie Dalgo, and many aunts, uncles, cousins, and close friends whom he considered family. He is predeceased by grandparents Ometa and Leonard Toney of Biloxi and grandfather Jerry A. Dalgo Sr. of Ocean Springs.

Eric graduated from Ocean Springs High School in 2008 and received a Bachelor of Science in Nursing from the University of South Alabama in 2015 with additional studies in philosophy and anthropology. After graduation, Eric began working as a Registered Nurse at Gulfport Memorial Hospital where he received accolades from his patients, mentees, and coworkers. He went on to serve as an RN at the Biloxi Veterans Affairs Medical Center until the time of his death. His friends and family describe Eric as kind, funny, witty, humble, shy, genuine, intelligent, talented, considerate, curious, sensitive, imaginative, and as someone with a rich inner life. Eric would likely describe himself as simply a loving big brother, son, and friend.

Eric was a creative person with many hobbies including playing/composing music – primarily on guitar and piano. He was an autodidact, teaching himself to play pieces such as Moonlight Sonata and Für Elise. He loved nature, photography, thrifting, podcasts, video games, and philosophy. He enjoyed reading poetry by Walt Whitman and Khalil Gibran. He would happily spend an afternoon daydreaming, writing songs and poems, and thinking about words. As a polymath with a nature focus, he could identify birds by their calls and songs, name the different types of jumping spiders, and had an encyclopedic knowledge of animals and their behaviors. 

Eric’s “Little Sister” Emily felt fortunate to have a big brother that became her constant companion and playmate bouncing on their air pogo, sledding down stairs in laundry buckets, exploring the scary woods, and searching for spider eyes with flashlights at night. Eric was glad to dress as a pumpkin-headed scarecrow for her Halloween parties, dance the “Snoopy Dance” with a strobe light, and play marbles on the carpet. When teens, Eric taught Emily to find the absurdity in every situation and to drive a car. As adults, they biked, shared game nights, inside jokes, talks about love, life, their parents and friends, past adventures, and plans for the future.

Eric’s parents remember that as a toddler, he loved playing with Styrofoam packing peanuts, dinosaurs, and rubber fishing worms. He learned to brush his teeth to stories of Vivian the Virus and Bernard the Bacterium who needed to go down the drain each day. He collected pine bark as treasure and ate broccoli because it looked like dinosaur trees. Each morning, as an enticement for preschool, he gleefully stepped on mushrooms that had sprung up overnight. He would watch for the green and white T-rex statues on the way to preschool and sometimes play on the beach afterward. When Eric started school at Magnolia Park, he would wake up happy and say, “Good morning” and then ask, “Is it cold out?” Some of his mother’s favorite memories of Eric are hiking the Tuxachanie Trail, staying up all night to watch meteor showers then the sunrise, receiving a phone call each morning and every evening from Eric while he was driving in his car “Old Squeaky” to and from work at the VA, greeting each other by jump dancing up and down, and saying goodbye after a visit by waving all the way down the street. Eric’s father will remember the days they spent alone at the barrier islands, especially Horn and Petit Bois Island, being captivated by sea life and the nature surrounding them, his willingness to do anything for those he loved, his comforting hugs, and jamming together for hours.

A memorial service will be held at Bradford O’Keefe Funeral Home at 1:00 p.m. on Friday, February 25, 2022 with a Celebration of Life reception to follow from 2:00-4:00 p.m. at The Greenhouse on Porter, where friends and family may gather to remember Eric, celebrate his life and friendship, and play music together. The family requests that face masks be worn by those in attendance.

In lieu of flowers, please make a donation in Eric’s name to any of the following organizations because Eric loved animals, learning, and words:

Audubon Society: act.audubon.org/a/donate 

A Way with Words Podcast: waywordradio.org/donate 

ASPCA: aspca.org/ways-to-give

Bradford-O'Keefe Funeral Home is honored to serve the family of Eric Christopher Dalgo.