[In Memoriam] Charles Erwin, 90

The following obituary was originally published by Legacy Remembers:

Charles William Erwin passed away on April 27 at Hock Family Pavilion in Durham. He was 90.

He was born on Sept. 4, 1933, to Charles Wesley Erwin and Geraldine Kamp Erwin in Houston, Texas. Bill, as he was known to family and friends, grew up in Houston, with his parents and older brother Edward. The family owned a grocery store, The Toot N’ Tellum, where Erwin worked many summers stocking shelves and helping customers. He came from a musical family; his mother was an excellent pianist, his brother Edward became a professional trombonist in the New York Philharmonic, and Bill studied piano and guitar for many years.

Erwin attended Rice University as a freshman before transferring to the University of Texas, Austin, and graduating with a BA in Anthropology in 1956. He obtained his medical degree from the University of Texas Medical School, Galveston, in 1960. After interning at Jackson Memorial Hospital in Miami, Florida, Erwin began his 37-year career at Duke University in 1961.

Erwin’s first appointment was a residency in psychiatry in 1961. He later became Associate Professor of Neurology and Professor of Psychiatry. Early in his career, neurophysiology became his focus. He understood the potential for the use of electroencephalography in diagnosing brain diseases and conditions as well as for studying the effects of medications and alcohol in areas ranging from motor skills to insomnia. He was associate director, and then director, of the Electroencephalography Laboratory at Duke from 1971 to 1983, and co-directed the Sleep Disorders Center for a number of years. He became director of the Evoked Potential Laboratory in 1978 until his retirement in 2000. During these years, intraoperative monitoring using evoked potentials went from rare to routine. Erwin ensured that Duke University Hospital was at the forefront of this transition. He trained numerous physicians, medical students, and technicians in the application of evoked potential technology for intraoperative monitoring. In 1999, he was president of the American Clinical Neurophysiology Society and received the Herbert H. Jasper Award for a lifetime of outstanding contributions to the field in 2011. Erwin co-authored more than 70 journal articles and book chapters.

In addition to his years at Duke, Erwin served in the U.S. Navy from 1967 to 1969, providing psychiatric care for veterans and active service members at Balboa Naval Hospital in San Diego, California. Upon completion of his service, he held the rank of commander.

Erwin was a loving, funny, brilliant person whose passion for life exceeded all bounds. He was a man of many talents and interests, enjoying a number of hobbies and activities throughout his life. As a young man, he played baseball and excelled at marksmanship. Later he trained Labrador Retrievers for field trials, applying an intuitive understanding of animal behavior and winning numerous competitions.

His love of technological solutions led him to be an early adopter of personal computers. He maintained an interest in new technology throughout his life, often understanding and explaining it better than people many generations younger. He had a passion for photography, which he used to document the lives of his children and the outdoors. He was an avid Duke basketball fan and was a season ticket holder for decades. He enjoyed preparing and sharing Chinese food.

In the late 1980s, Erwin began hosting family reunions and loved nothing more than having everyone gathered to regale each other with tall tales of family exploits. He was a true storyteller who loved all forms of humor. Puns, shaggy dog stories, riddles, knock-knocks, and “dad” jokes abounded at any gathering.

Erwin raised his children to be adventurous and confident in their endeavors and to cultivate curiosity and creativity. He was a kid at heart himself and loved building (and firing) small rockets, much to the delight of his many grandchildren. He had a wildly artistic side and made wooden toys and elaborate kids Halloween costumes.

Traveling in the United States was a passion—he introduced all his children to the natural world beginning with tent camping in the 1960s, moving on to trailers and RVs in the following decades, with one of his favorite places being the Blue Ridge Parkway. Erwin loved the fields, woods, and pond around his home. He especially loved mowing the pasture on his tractor. He built a large Purple Martin nesting house to encourage these graceful birds to raise their young where he could observe them.

Erwin believed the key to enjoying life was having an active mind. He loved to learn and described himself as a forever student. He was curious about the world and most things in it. He had an astounding breadth of knowledge across many subjects and always enjoyed wide-ranging discussions with friends and family.

Erwin is survived by his loving wife Andrea; daughters Tracey (Eric Raznick) Erwin, Charlotte (Dave) Morgan, Kate (Michael) Carroll, Erin (Chase) Hines; son Thomas Erwin; and eight grandchildren: Josh, Alex, Wyatt, Ronan, Finn, Dash, Oliver, and Benjamin. He was preceded in death by his parents, Charles Wesley Erwin and Geraldine Kamp Erwin, and brother Edward Erwin.

Erwin’s legacy of dedication to medicine and zest for life will be cherished by all who knew him. He will be deeply missed by his family, friends, and the medical community he enriched with his expertise and commitment to training future generations of physicians and scientists. He was truly one of a kind.

A memorial service will be held Saturday, June 8. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to Duke HomeCare & Hospice, Hock Family Pavilion, 4321 Medical Park Drive, Suite 100, Durham, NC 27704, or at their online giving site: https://www.givetodukeathome.org.

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