Eric has been performing and teaching the art of general and vascular surgery for 30 years. He earned his M.D. in 1972 from West Virginia University and did his residency at Tulane. He’s now professor of surgery in West Virginia U’s Robert C. Byrd Health Sciences Center in Charleston and a fellow of the American College of Surgeons and is active at the local and national levels in that organization. His wife, Sandra – “the greatest and most wonderful person in my life, my soul mate,” with whom he spent his senior year at W&L – died in 2005.

In addition to his professional activities, he plays golf, travels and spends time with his children: Bryan, 34, a utilities consultant who’s a graduate of Penn with an M.B.A. from Rollins, and Erica, 29, who went to Eckerd College and works at Sea World.