President

CFSNA President

Eric Clay Ferguson

Chev. Eric Clay Ferguson, KOOSJ, SKTpl, is the 11th President of Clan Ferguson Society of North American. He was first elected in 2018 and reelected in 2020. Eric took the office after the retirement of Billy J Ferguson, Immediate Past President. Prior to being President, he served as Region 3 Vice President and Senior Vice President and continues to be the BEELINE editor.

Eric comes from humble roots of Scottsbluff Nebraska where he was raised most of his young years on a farm 15 miles out of town. While growing up aside from helping his parents on the farm, he grew an interest in cars and dinosaurs. He participated in activities such as basketball, wrestling, unorganized football, hunting, and fishing. He grew up during the Bob Devaney-Tom Osborn Nebraska Cornhusker football era and certainly loves Cornhusker football. He purchased his own car at age 15. It was a 1967 Pontiac GTO.

Eric is proud of his COLD WAR veteran status as serving to fend off Soviet communist aggression. At age 18 Eric joined the U.S. Army and served from 1978 to 1989, to include a break to attend the University of Nebraska in the early 80’s. Eric switched his job specialty to Telecommunications and re-signed in the Signal Corps until his exit at Fort Meade, MD in 1989. He was stationed near Heidelberg Germany, in the 18th Engineer Brigade; stationed at Nurnberg, Bamberg, Grafenwoehr, and Augsburg in Bavaria Germany in the 69th Signal Battalion. Stateside he was stationed at Fort Carson, Colorado in the 4th Infantry Division and Signal Units in Fort Meade Maryland. Training stops included Ft Jackson, SC, Ft Lee VA, and Fort Gordon, Georgia. He proudly displays his decorations at veteran and special functions.

Eric holds a Bachelors Degree in Business Administration from the University of Maryland. His profession is Information Systems. His previous positions held were IT management in and around Washington DC area. He rejoined the Federal Workforce in 2002 at the Social Security Administration Headquarters in Baltimore Maryland. While at SSA he developed, most single handedly, an application monitoring software tool which is said to be the #1 monitoring system in the agency. He is hoping for retirement
soon.

He has a lovely wife Lolita, and a son Nathan. They have their home in Shrewsbury Pennsylvania, a short stop above the Maryland (Mason Dixon) line. They are all active in Scottish affairs and festivals. Both Eric and Nathan are members of two pipe and drums bands as drummers. Eric also was formerly a Public Affairs officer for the Coast Guard Auxiliary. He is also active in military veteran affairs as the former Post Commander of the Scottish American Military Society Post 1739 South Central PA.

Eric bestows two knightships. He was recognized as a knight with Orthodox Order of St Johns, and the Autonomous Grand Priory of Scotland, The Scottish Knight Templars. The later his investiture was at Balgonie Castle in Scotland.

Eric was also honored to have met Sir Charles Fergusson at his estate in Kilkerran, Scotland.

His hobbies and interests include ancestry, football, traveling, and the Scottish heritage.

Ancestry

Eric’s father was John Oliver Jenkins Ferguson (deceased) born Alliance Nebraska, who had ancestry of Scottish, Irish, Scandinavian, and other UK bloodlines. John’s father lived in the Ferguson (Claude C. Ferguson lineage) household that immigrated from Scotland circa 1770s to New York to Iowa to Nebraska. It turns out that John’s mother Helen Ritter also had Ferguson roots which also came out of New York and may be among the earliest Fergusons immigrants during the Great Migrations years after 1630s who arrived in Massachusetts and Connecticut before Westchester NY and Dutchess County New York. Helen’s Ferguson family includes Hezekiah Ferguson, a Revolutionary War Soldier from NY. After the Rev war they lived in Kinderhook, New York and attended church (re Dutch Reformed Church) with Martin Van Buren, who became the 8th President of the U.S. The descendants Margaret Peggy Ferguson married a Barnes and probably followed a Quaker movement to Norwich Ontario about circa 1820s. Eric’s recent discovery with his DNA also suggests he has distant relative Ferguson connections to the founders of Ferguson, Wilkes County, North Carolina

Eric’s mother is Angelika Gitschel. She was born in Augsburg Germany during World War II. Her father was from war torn Breslau, Prussia (now Poland). Her Gitschel uncle was put in the Dachau concentration camp as a political prisoner by the Nazis and spent 3 years there before Americans liberated the camp. Angy’s family immigrated to the U.S. in 1952.