Everard Raymond Hicks

Everard Raymond Hicks, 91, husband of the late Carolyn Polk Hicks of Mt. Pleasant, SC passed away on Saturday, November 6, 2010.  The relatives and friends of Everard Hicks are invited to attend his Memorial Service on Sunday, November 14, 2010 in St. Andrews Church, Mt. Pleasant at 2:00 o'clock. Burial will follow the service in Mount Pleasant Memorial Gardens. Arrangements by J. HENRY STUHR, INC., MOUNT PLEASANT CHAPEL. One of three boys, Everard was born February 24, 1919 to Rob Roy and Ruby Hicks in Hazel, Kentucky. After 2 years of college, he trained as a nurse at his grandfather's hospital, The William Mason Memorial Hospital in Murray, Kentucky before graduating as an RN in 1941. Drafted into the army at 21, he was assigned as a medical NCO to the 924^th Field Artillery Battalion, 99^th "Checkerboard" Infantry Division. He sailed for England Sept, 1944, and went to Aubel, Belgium for the attack on the Siegfried Line, the Battle of Hurtgen Forest and what became known as the Battle of the Bulge. Extreme cold and savage fighting forced the thin lines of this untried division to withdrawal to the Eisenborn Ridge before striking back to regain lost ground in the drive to cross the Rhine, expand the "Remagen Bridgehead" and liberate Allied POWs in Moosburg, Germany. After receiving the Award of Bronze Star Medal for carrying one of three injured enlisted men out of an un-cleared mine field, he was reassigned to the Medical Detachment of the 400^th Armored Field Artillery Battalion before being honorably discharged October 14^th, 1945. You can read his war diary at http://med-dept.com/testimonies/hicks_diary.pdf. Everard received his BS in Biology from La Sierra University, where he met and married the late Carolyn Polk in 1947. They had three children, Marc, Dianne and the late Mike Hicks. After graduating as a nurse anesthetist at the Norwegian American School of Anesthesiology in Chicago, he founded the first school for nurse anesthetists in the state of S.C. at the McLeod Infirmary in Florence, South Carolina in 1954. He then moved his family to Charleston to begin the first nurse anesthetist's program at MUSC in 1965. While director of this program, he received his Masters Degree in Education from The Citadel. Near the end of his career, he was awarded the honor of Professor Emeritus at MUSC. Everard recently received the SC Association of Nurse Anesthetists' Helen Arndt Award for his distinguished career as a nurse anesthetist along with naming a scholarship fund in his honor.  MUSC has set up a memorial in his honor for his contribution to the field of anesthesia. Everard was the finest fisherman in this state, "Able," as noted by the members of the SC Old Waders Association, "to catch fish if he dropped his line in a toilet." Everard is survived by his son, Dr. Marc Hicks, one daughter, Dianne Tennyson and her husband Eric Vincent; grandchildren Jeremy Hicks and his wife Barbara, Jonathan Hicks, Sarah, Rebekah and Anna Tennyson and great-grandson William Stuhr IV. He was preceded in death by his brothers, Dr. Shelby and Rob Hicks, his wife, Carolyn Polk Hicks and his son, Mike Hicks. In lieu of flowers, please make donations to The Everard Hicks Memorial Fund at MUSC, Anesthesia for Nurse Anesthetist Program, 151 B Rutledge Avenue, MSC 962, Charleston, SC 29425.