In Memoriam

Hoke F. Henderson, Jr.

Obituary

Hoke Henderson
1964 graduation

Dr. Hoke F. Henderson, Jr. COLUMBIA — Dr. Hoke F. "Rick" Henderson, Jr., 75, of Columbia, died Saturday, April 21, 2018, at the University of North Carolina Healthcare Hospice near Chapel Hill, North Carolina.

Born on May 1, 1942, in Elkin, North Carolina, he was the son of Hoke F. Henderson and Mary Trogdon Henderson. Survivors include: his wife, Karen LeCraft Henderson; and his sister, Mary Anne Henderson.

Dr. Henderson had the idyllic boyhood of the 1950s — a Gene Autry cowboy suit, roller skates, cap gun, fat-tired bike, tree house, piano lessons, Boy Scouts, including Eagle Scout, and paper route — made even more idyllic by the foothills of North Carolina.

Hoke Henderson
recent photograph

He graduated from Elkin High School in 1960 and from Yale University in 1964. He then attended the University of North Carolina School of Medicine, graduating in 1968. He completed both his pathology internship and his residency at the University of North Carolina, training under the noted pathologist, Dr. Kenneth Brinkhous. He was certified by the American Board of Pathology in Anatomic and Clinical Pathology and by the American Board of Dermatopathology.

In 1972, he began practicing pathology at the then-new Richland Memorial Hospital and eventually practiced with Columbia Pathology Associates at the Baptist Medical Center for the next 28 years.

His professional memberships included the College of American Pathologists, the American Society of Clinical Pathologists, the South Carolina Medical Society, and the Columbia Medical Society.

From 1968 until 1976, Dr. Henderson was commissioned in the U.S. Navy Reserve.

After retiring from active practice, he had time to follow other interests and enrolled in the higher mathematics courses offered at the University of South Carolina. His pleasure reading was usually done in Spanish, German and French. But he was happiest on the tennis court.

He was a natural teacher and lectured in skin pathology as adjunct professor at the University of South Carolina School of Medicine from its opening in 1977 on. From 2000 until shortly before his death, he taught there each semester as Associate Professor of Pathology, Microbiology, and Immunology.

Everyone who knew Dr. Henderson learned from him. The family is grateful for the care given Dr. Henderson for several years by Columbia Nephrology Associates and the Columbia Heart Center, and especially by the late general surgeon, Dr. Chad Rubin, and cardiac surgeon, Dr. Ryan Burke, whose skillful hands gave him three additional years. He and his family have also been blessed by the care and compassion of Mrs. Ernestine Counts, CNA.

A memorial service will be held on Thursday, April 26, 2018, at 4:00 p.m., at the chapel at Still Hopes Episcopal Retirement Community. Leevy's Funeral Home, Taylor Street Chapel is assisting the family.