Ernest "Ernie" Nelson Platt

A memorial service for Ernest “Ernie” Nelson Platt, M.D. will be held at 1:30 PM on Saturday, December 20, 2025, at the Crowley Seventh-day Adventist Church located at 3200 FM 1187, Crowley, TX 76036 with Pastor Adam Keating officiating. 

Ernest “Ernie” Nelson Platt, M.D., 81, of Burleson, TX, passed away peacefully in his home on November 24, 2025. Ernie was born on September 11, 1944, to Ernest and Violet Forbes in Lodi, California. Ernie was later adopted by his step-father, Leslie Platt. Ernie was raised in a Seventh-day Adventist home, but the family was poor. When his step-father was unemployed, Ernie worked odd jobs to help put food on the family’s table. Ernie met his first wife, Thelma, while attending Southwestern Union College in Keene, TX. He graduated from Union College in Lincoln, Nebraska, with a degree in chemistry in 1966. He received his medical degree in 1970 from Loma Linda University. But it was a time of war, and Ernie was drafted. Ernie was commissioned as a medical officer in the United States Army in 1971, and served in Army hospitals in Honolulu, HI.

While in Honolulu, in 1973, Ernie and Thelma celebrated the birth of their first child, Brian. Later, after relocating to Arroyo Grande, CA, a second son, Kevin, joined their family, in 1977. And a few years later in 1979, a daughter, Christina, entered their lives. Ernie decided to move his growing family to Wenatchee, Washington, in 1980. Ernie and Thelma raised their three children in Wenatchee, where Ernie continued to practice family medicine. Ernie was a physician loved by patients and colleagues alike.

In 2001, Ernie remarried Gwen Sowa, and shortly thereafter, they moved to the Rio Grande Valley, in Texas. During his time in Oregon and Texas, Ernie worked as a teacher and principal in the Seventh-day Adventist school system. During his last years as he battled with Parkinson’s, he came to reside with his daughter, Christina, in Burleson, TX.

Ernie loved nature (shells, rocks, birds, butterflies, flowers, etc.) and shared time with his friends in the “great outdoors.” He enjoyed photography, painting, gardening, hiking, home projects and connecting with others. Many people were blessed by Ernie’s happy and kind disposition, and his positive outlook. Ernie will be remembered as a “Go-Getter,” a friend, a loving father and grandfather, and devoted husband.

Ernie will be missed, but his influence and gentle encouragement will live on.

Ernie was preceded in death by his mother and step-father, Violet and Leslie Platt; his father, Ernest Forbes; and his first wife, Thelma Hoehn Kelley. Ernie is survived by his wife, Gwen; his three children, Brian and wife Teresa, Kevin and wife Ashley, and Christina and husband James; and his six grandchildren: Hadley, Owen, Jonathan, Isaac, Nathaniel, and Carissa.