Robert C. Hedrick

Robert “Bob” Cecil Hedrick, 86, of Hilltop Drive, coined his last nickname, told his last joke, and endured his last Wake Forest sporting event on September 3, 2022.

Bob was born January 12, 1936, in Lexington, North Carolina to Sanford Matthew “Buck” Hedrick and Thelma Austin Hedrick. He graduated from Lexington Senior High in 1954 as the student body president (not just the class president, as he would often correct family members), as well as editor of the yearbook and member of the football team. He attended Wake Forest University for undergraduate and law school, the latter of which he admitted he had to buckle down and do some actual work for (and not spend so much time on things like being the president of his chapter of the Kappa Alpha Fraternity). While at Wake Forest, he met his future wife, Jane Aycock Hedrick. They celebrated their sixty-third anniversary on June 6, 2022.

After undergraduate graduation he served as a lieutenant in the US army for two years. He practiced law for over fifty years. In addition to representing many private clients, Bob took pride in being the attorney for Davidson County Community College, Davidson Water Inc., Branch Banking and Trust, the Sheltered Workshop and Davidson County Child Support, also serving as the first full time attorney for Davidson County for eight years. He was less excited to show off his office, in which not one surface was left free from stacks of paper—though he could find anything at a moment’s notice. He had numerous philanthropic interests, including serving as president of the Kiwanis Club, Chairman of the March of Dimes and receiving the Jaycee Man of the Year award. Bob was an active member of the First Baptist Church of Lexington, where he served as Chairman of the Board of Deacons among other responsibilities such as helping to start a shelter for homeless men in the basement of the church.

Bob enthusiastically watched and attended countless Wake Forest sporting events, developing a deep-seated pessimism for the outcome that proved unshakeable even in the face of almost certain success. Regardless of the outcome of athletic events, Bob noted with particular pride that four generations of Aycocks had graduated from Wake. Bob was a notoriously slow eater, but when prodded offered his usual explanation for his peculiarities: “I grew up in the depression.” A prolific joke and storyteller, it seemed Bob had gone to school with everyone in town, and that he was at his most amusing when he was not trying to be, prompting his admonition, “I’ll tell you when to laugh!” Bob developed a late-in-life addiction to quantitative walking via his Fitbit, obsessively making sure to get his steps in to best others on his leaderboard. He could often be found pacing in his driveway late into the evening to hit his goal for the day. His family is at least at peace knowing he is freed from this obsessive burden of competitive ambulation, as well as the next excruciating Wake Forest athletics defeat (which he saw coming the whole time).

His parents and brother, Sanford Matthew Hedrick Jr., preceded him in death. He is survived by his wife, Jane Aycock Hedrick of the home, his sister, Martha Hedrick Moore, of Lexington, his daughters Laura Lucile “Laura Lu” Hedrick of Lexington and Martha Delia “Mardee” Johnson of Cornelius; son-in-law Franklin “Frank” Bell of Lexington; and his grandchildren Austin Bell, Baily Johnson and Taylor Jane Johnson, all whom he gave countless nicknames, some of which they enjoyed at the time.

There will be a private burial service for Robert "Bob" Cecil Hedrick next week at Forsyth Memorial Park, Winston-Salem, NC.  He will be interred next to his father-in-law and his mother-in-law, A. Lewis Aycock and Lucile H. Aycock.

The family thanks everyone for their prayers and condolences and especially for their remembrances of Robert "Bob".