Just in case some one runs into same issue.
I had to reinstall MS Office 365 ProPlus (2016). It got installed using an older release of Office 16.0.6965.2115. This release causes the access violation. Attempting to update Office via file / account / update now kept telling me office is up to date. I could not force it.
Looking next to the 'office update' button, I saw it configured to use 'deferred channel'. This channel pushes updates every 4 months. This is why my installation did not update.
To force an update, I found this MS site that allowed me to run a 'fix it' utility. It did the trick. Once I ran it, Office updated to the latest release by switching the update channel from 'deferred' to 'current'.
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/3185078
Hope this helps.