Father, daughter share passion for medicine
By Cindy Whitman
On any given fair-weather Sunday, you can find Eric Gearhart, a board-certified physician assistant at Beaufort Memorial Lady’s Island Internal Medicine, in his Lady’s Island backyard, manning his Big Green Egg.
Sometimes it’s his famous wings on the grill, and sometimes it’s hand-tossed pizza. But one thing you can always count on is that his patio will be overflowing with family, including his wife Angela, who recently retired as office manager for Bay Street Outfitters, and their daughter Ashley, a charge nurse at Beaufort Memorial Hospital’s medical/surgical and orthopedics unit.
“We like to hang out together on the weekends,” said Ashley, who is particularly looking forward to this Sunday’s Father’s Day celebration. “Dad and I are both so busy working during the week that it’s nice to get together to eat, chat and relax. In fact, I recently moved into a new place on Lady’s Island and now I’m even closer to them.”
“The weekends are like mini family vacations for us,” Eric chimed in. “The only thing missing is our son Paul, who lives in Los Angeles.”
The fact that this medical father and daughter duo are happy just to hang out when they aren’t working may have something to do with Eric’s Navy career. The son of a Navy veteran himself, Eric followed a similar path, joining the Navy at 18, becoming a hospital corpsman and traveling the seven seas before landing on Parris Island in 2002.
“When I got stationed at Parris Island, I knew I was home,” Eric said. “This was where I wanted to settle down and raise my family. When I retired from the Navy, I stayed right here and joined a family practice, before moving to Lady’s Island Internal Medicine. Now I live and work right here on the island. Couldn’t be a more perfect life.”
Though his daughter most definitely shares her father’s love of medicine and patient care, Ashley did not inherit the wanderlust that led Eric to a career in the Navy. She’s a hometown girl through and through.
After graduating from Beaufort High School in 2014, Ashley chose to stay relatively close to home and headed to Clemson University where she earned a Bachelor of Science in nutrition and dietetics.
She says she always knew she wanted to go into science and medicine.
“I wasn’t sure if I wanted to become a physician assistant like my dad, or a nurse, or even a pharmacist or nutritionist, but it was going to be something in the health field,” she recalled. “And my dad really helped guide me. He encouraged me to find my place. Best of all, he brought me to work with him. That was key.”
While in middle school, Ashley shadowed her dad at Parris Island and in high school she helped out in the office at the family practice Eric joined after retiring from the Navy. After graduating from Clemson in 2018, she decided to return to Beaufort and apply to nursing school at Technical College of the Lowcountry.
“It just felt like it was fate,” she said. “I was ready to come home. I wanted to find my place in the world right here.”
Ashley graduated from TCL with an associate degree in nursing in 2020, and went straight to work at Beaufort Memorial, serving as a nurse at the hospital’s Joint Replacement Center.
“I enjoy helping orthopedic patients get back on their feet and back to their lives after surgery,” she said.
Julie Schott, Ashley’s supervisor at the hospital, remembers that the eager, hardworking young nurse came on board as an intern and quickly jumped into full-time work, while simultaneously earning her Bachelor of Science in Nursing from Clemson.
“A lot of people put off getting the bachelor’s degree once they start working,” Julie explained. “They’re so busy working, they just don’t have the energy. But not Ashley. She is dedicated to learning. And to excellence on the job.”
That dedication paid off. In her first year at the hospital, she became a charge nurse.
“Charge nurses serve as a resource and offer guidance and mentorship to their co-workers who are providing direct patient care. They also assist with operations management on their particular shift,” explained Julie. “Ashley just showed that leadership quality early on.”
Her supervisor isn’t the only person who gives glowing reviews when talking about Ashley. Her dear old dad is pretty darn proud of his daughter, too.
“Medicine is a career that offers so many opportunities, so many ways to go,” said Eric. “I’m very proud of the way Ashley kept exploring her career options until she found the path that was right for her.”
And while it’s unlikely the father/daughter medical duo will ever practice together, they have cared for each other’s patients from time to time.
“I’ve met a few patients at the Joint Replacement Center who saw my last name on my work badge and asked if we were related,” said Ashley. “They tell me they’re glad to have two Gearharts caring for them.”
