Erla Ann (Asgeirsson) Tobin

Erla Ann (Asgeirsson) Tobin, 80, passed away peacefully, in her sleep, at her home in Stone Mountain, Georgia on November 11, 2025.

Erla is survived by her husband Barry, her daughter Bryndis, her son Douglas, and her daughter-in-law Kathryne Gould, all of Stone Mountain, Georgia. She is also survived by her sister-in-law and brothers-in-law, several nieces and nephews in the USA and Iceland, and several first cousins in the USA and Iceland.

Erla was born February 14, 1945 in York, Pennsylvania and was the daughter of Gudni and Helen (Gotwalt) Asgeirsson.

Erla first travelled to Reykjavik, Iceland in 1961 to visit relatives there.

She graduated from William Penn High School in York in 1963 while taking her senior year at Washington Irving High School in New York City. After graduation Erla worked at the East Harlem Protestant Parish in Manhattan. She attended Buena Vista College in Storm Lake, Iowa for one semester on a scholarship. She subsequently attended Chico State College in Chico, California for two semesters.

Erla moved to Iceland in July 1966 and worked at a boarding school in Bifrost in the Icelandic countryside. She returned to New York City in April 1967 and married her husband Barry in May of that year. They resided in East Harlem where Bryndis and Douglas were born. The family moved to Woodbury, New York on Long Island in 1974.

After her children had moved to attend college, Erla moved to a studio apartment in the historic Master Building on Manhattan’s Upper West Side. Erla resumed her college education and received a BA from the New School and a Masters in Forensic Psychology from John Jay College.

Erla was involved throughout her lifetime in seeking justice and making the world a better place to live. She volunteered in the early 60s to register minority voters in the South, in the 80s and 90s to support the environmental education efforts of the Hudson River Sloop Clearwater, and to help abused women in a Long Island shelter. She demonstrated against wars in Vietnam and the Middle East, for LGBTQ+ rights, and for women’s rights.

Erla also had a gift for learning and teaching how to make things from scratch, whether it was a meal, a dress, or building a computer.

Erla and Barry moved to Georgia in 2020, first to Avondale Estates and then to Stone Mountain. They were joined there by Bryndis who assisted in caregiving efforts for Erla.

As per her request Erla will be cremated. Arrangements have been entrusted to Fischer Funeral Care of Atlanta, Georgia.

In lieu of flowers, please register someone to vote, do something that helps the environment, feed someone who needs a good meal, work for human rights, and/or donate to an organization that does one or more of those things.

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