Remembrance

Erin Elizabeth Day

1957-2026

Erin Day, Director of Journalism for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, died on January 27, 2026 in Washington DC after a short and difficult battle with the big C. “I have a fighting spirit,” she told her doctor as soon as she got the prognosis. Always elegant, her first response was to order a glamorous sweater and new make-up. Later, she brought her hairdresser into the hospital to properly shave her head. It was Christmas so she adorned her smooth brow with a gold crown from a British Christmas cracker a friend had brought her. IYKYK. 

Day dedicated her life to public service. She spent two decades at the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, managing tens of millions of dollars in grants to national producers such as PBS News Hour, FRONTLINE, National Public Radio, American Public Media, and PRX The World, as well as local stations and journalism collaborations serving Americans across the country. She guided the establishment of the Mountain West News Bureau, a collaboration of stations along the spine of the Rocky Mountains, as well as the Gulf States Newsroom, a partnership between WBHM in Birmingham, WWNO in New Orleans, WRKF in Baton Rouge, Mississippi Public Broadcasting, and NPR. Day helped establish the Editorial Integrity and Leadership Initiative, which provided support and training for some of the nation’s brightest newsroom leaders. She also shepherded grants to public television programs such as Alexander Hamilton, Latin Music USA, Looking for Lincoln, and We Shall Remain, in addition to live performance shows at the White House and the Kennedy Center Mark Twain Prize. Her grantees have gone on to receive Edward R. Murrow Awards, Walter Cronkite Awards for Excellence in Journalism, Emmy Awards 

CPB colleagues described Day as having a stiff upper lip and a no-nonsense disposition, but she was also fondly remembered for hosting 15-minute dance parties every Friday morning in her office. Colleagues will always remember her red, punk rock hair, lace-up boots, and preference for Bruno Mars’ Uptown Funk.

Day was born in Los Angeles, California. She grew up with her younger brother Matthew in San Mateo, where her father was an aerospace engineer in what is now Silicon Valley, and her mother worked in advertising. At that tender age, Day had a passion for tea parties, dress up and ballet, and managed to get on point earlier than most. 

As a teen she lived in Devonshire, England in a stone cottage down a muddy lane, where her mother had moved post-divorce. To attend the local school, she was required to wear a uniform she detested, including a stiff grey skirt and blue knee socks. By 12th grade she had moved on to the progressive school: Dartington Hall.  This English school, set on a rolling green estate just outside Devon’s tiny town of Totnes, soon became a place of great joy for her, where she made many deep friends for life. 

In college, Day took up international studies at Vermont’s School for International Training, where the philosophy included: “Expect the unexpected; Turn a crisis into an adventure; Learn to live together by living together; Be quick to observe, slow to judge.” She then went on to do a masters in international relations at the University of Sussex, England.

Before joining CPB, she worked as a web director for ONCOR international, an economic sanctions advisor for the US Navy, a legislative director for US Senator Harlan Mathews, and a foreign policy analyst for the Congressional Research Service. In the 1980s, she did international work for several years in Lagos, Nigeria, where her mother was a cultural attaché at the US Embassy, and also lived in Southern California while working for a local newspaper. 

Later in life it was Day’s dream to return to England and have her own cottage and garden. Though the pandemic eventually prevented this, she soon found her dream home in Washington, D.C. on Capitol Hill. She wasted no time planting a garden with lavender, rosemary, jasmine and other fragrant and beautiful herbs and flowers.  This was her favorite refuge in the summer, where she’d entertain with tea or wine and appetizers on one of her mother’s fine china plates. In the colder months she would tempt her friends over to sit by her beautiful fire, while she cooked one of her gorgeous meals. Erin was an accomplished cook, a foodie long before it became a thing.

She is survived by an aunt and various cousins, her godmother and goddaughters, and many dear friends. “I’ll miss her dry humor,” one said. Another remembers her as “tender, fiery, stubborn and adventurous.”

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Please respect Erin’s privacy by only sharing the link to this obit with direct friends and family. Thank you, 

Ariel, Erin’s godsister