Obituary of Erich Howard Traugott

Erich “Rick” Howard Traugott, 59, of Port Hope, Ontario, died August 12, 2024, suddenly and unexpectedly. 

Rick is predeceased by his parents, Erich and Kim Traugott, and his step-mother, Josephine Traugott. He is survived by his wife, Sue, and children, Jenna, Katie, and Ben. 

Rick was raised in Toronto, Ontario. From grades 7 through 13, Rick attended Upper Canada College where he played hockey, soccer, baseball, and cricket. He also played the saxophone and had a lifelong love of music. 

After graduating from high school, he went on to pursue a bachelor’s degree in American Studies at the University of Toronto. Here, Rick played for the Varsity Blues Hockey and was a member of Delta Kappa Epsilon Fraternity. 

He spent the majority of his career at Trinity College School in Port Hope, Ontario, where he taught, worked in admissions and, most recently, for the alumni and philanthropy office, and coached hockey and baseball. With over 30 years of service to TCS, Rick was a pillar of the community. Through his various roles including living in Ketchum House as “spouse-master” while Sue served as housemaster for 16 years, he coached, taught, and advised countless students. 

Coaching was Rick’s passion in life. Whether it was coaching his son’s hockey team in Port Hope, or being on the staff of the Canada Women’s National Team, he took pride in his work as a coach and loved every minute of it. Notable accomplishments of his career include winning a gold medal on the coaching staff of the U18 team at the IIHF World Championship in Budapest, Hungary and a silver medal with the National Women’s Team at Worlds in Malmo, Sweden. Most recently, he was head coach of the Toronto Aeros U18 and U22 hockey teams and was looking forward to the upcoming season. 

Rick was also an author, writing books on hockey drills and coaching philosophy in addition to his blog. 

Most of all, Rick was proud of his family. He loved his wife and children more than anything and was always the first to say how proud he was of all of them. They are inspired every day by his optimism, dedication to the people he loved, and good humour. He was the kind of person that moved through the world making the lives of those around him better. Rick will always be remembered by his friends, colleagues, and the countless people he impacted as kind, humble, and a good listener. 

A service to remember Rick will be held on Monday, August 19th at 2 pm at the Trinity College School Memorial Chapel located at 140 Ward St, Port Hope, Ontario. A reception will follow in the Cirne Commons. Please direct all questions regarding the service to Ben Traugott (bentraugott@gmail.com).

The service will also be live streamed at the following link: https://ljsp.lwcdn.com/api/video/embed.jsp?id=bc5dc89b-90b3-48bd-ae4b-ec188f4e47a5&pi=177eb0c3-43a2-408b-afdc-0b261a571efb