On any given fair-weather Sunday, you can find Eric Gearhart, a 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 in the Beaufort Memorial medical/surgical and orthopedics unit.
“We like to hang out together on the weekends,” says Ashley, who is happily following in her father’s medical career footsteps. “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 adds. “It’s so beautiful right here in the backyard, why go anyplace else? The only thing missing is our son Paul, who lives in Los Angeles.”
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Family Medicine
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, 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 says. “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 Ashley shares her father’s love of medicine and patient care, she 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’s degree 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 recalls. “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.”
‘It Just Felt Like It Was Fate’
While in middle school, Ashley shadowed her dad at Parris Island. 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 (TCL).
“It just felt like it was fate,” she says. “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 Joint Replacement Center.
“I enjoy helping orthopedic patients get back on their feet and back to their lives after surgery,” she says.
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Julie Schott, Ashley’s supervisor at the hospital, remembers when the eager, hardworking young nurse came on board as an intern and quickly jumped into full-time work, while simultaneously earning a bachelor’s degree in nursing from Clemson.
“A lot of people put off getting the bachelor’s degree once they start working,” Julie explains. “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 Ashley’s 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 providing direct patient care. They also assist with operations management on their particular shift,” Julie explains. “Ashley just showed that leadership quality early on.”
Like Father, Like Daughter
Ashley’s supervisor isn’t the only person who gives her glowing reviews. 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,” Eric says. “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,” Ashley says. “They tell me they’re glad to have two Gearharts caring for them.”
Beaufort Memorial primary care providers make it easy to get care quickly through BMH Care Anywhere, Beaufort Memorial Express Care & Occupational Health clinics and Walk-In Care at Publix. Learn more about our immediate care options.
