Eric Murdock

Colonel Eric C. Murdock (Retired), 72, of Columbia, SC, passed away peacefully on Saturday, Aug. 17, 2024, at Gordon Hospice House in Statesville, NC, with his family by his side. He was born Oct. 5, 1951, in Charlotte, NC.

Eric was the son of Conda Murdock and Betty Lazenby Murdock. He was married to the beautiful Kathryn Bennett Murdock of Asheville, NC, for 30 years.

Eric is survived by his sons Jason Eric Murdock (Ella) of Canton, GA, and Benjamin Wilson Murdock (Delia) of Seattle, WA, his four grandchildren Pierce, Ansley, Aiden, and Carter, sister Anna Murdock of Statesville, NC, and brother Steven Edgar Murdock of Huntersville, NC.

Eric was baptized at Broad Street United Methodist Church in Statesville, NC and was active in Sunday School and youth activities. He was an Eagle Scout and Boy Scout Leader. A graduate from Statesville High School in 1969, he was the student body president and a member of the Grenadier Band. He was also on the wrestling team.

A recipient of the Morehead Scholarship, Eric got his Bachelor of Arts in Zoology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He then got his Bachelor of Science in Nursing at UNC-Charlotte, and his Master of Science in Nursing Administration at the University of Alabama at Birmingham.

Eric joined the United States Air Force in 1978, where he served for 24 years. He also served two tours in South Korea and Saudi Arabia. Eric was the first male to be promoted Colonel as an Operating Room Registered Nurse in the USAF. Eric’s first assignment was in Portsmouth, NH, followed by assignments in Myrtle Beach, SC, Anchorage, AK, Riverside, CA, Biloxi, MS, and Fairborn, OH

He loved people, which is why he enjoyed helping so many in hospitals across the nine states he lived in. Among numerous other military awards and decorations, Eric’s proudest military achievement was earning the highly coveted US Army Expert Field Medical Badge in Alaska when he was only 38 years old, one of the youngest to ever receive it.

Eric retired from the Air Force in 2002, but he was not finished serving others. He was hired as Director of Surgical Services at Palmetto Health Richland Hospital in Columbia, SC, and later at Speare Memorial Hospital in Plymouth, NH, where he retired in 2021.

He returned to Columbia where he was a member of Lexington United Methodist Church in Lexington, SC. Eric loved aviation and even got his private pilot’s license in 2002 while in Ohio. He also loved UNC basketball and reading all things non-fiction, especially military and history books. In retirement, he located and visited over 75 Revolutionary War sites in SC. He looked forward to the weekly gatherings and fellowship with his aviation model club at the Flight Deck Restaurant in Lexington, SC. More than anything in the world, Eric loved his two sons, their wives, and his four grandchildren.

A Celebration of Life Service will be held at Broad Street United Methodist Church, located at 315 W. Broad Street in Statesville, NC on Wednesday, August 28, 2024, at 2:00pm. The family invites Eric’s classmates from Statesville High School to sit together during the service in an area that will be designated. The service will be available via Livestream on Broad Street UMC’s website: www.broadstreetumc.org and will remain archived on the church’s YouTube channel. The family will receive friends immediately following the service in Memorial Hall.

In lieu of flowers, the family requests that memorial gifts be made to Broad Street United Methodist Church, PO Box 169, Statesville, NC, 28687, or Gordon Hospice House, 2341 Simonton Road, Statesville, NC, 28625.