Campbell University

Tales from the Creek Podcast (Oct. 2024)

Bob Etheridge, a former basketball standout who served 14 years in the United States House of Representatives, was inducted into the Campbell University Sports Hall of Fame in October 2002.
 
For more than 50 years, Congressman Etheridge and his wife, Faye, have made their home in Harnett County, where he has been a businessman, part-time farmer, and full-time public servant.
 
A 1965 Campbell graduate with a B.S. Degree in Business Administration, Etheridge was a four-year member of Coach Fred McCall’s basketball team and a starter as a junior and senior.  He averaged 11.8 points per game during his junior year, then contributed 12.8 points per outing in his senior season of 1964-65.  He made 81 percent of his career free throws.
 
Following his graduation, Etheridge served his country for two years in the United States Army.  He went on to serve as a Harnett County commissioner and later in North Carolina’s General Assembly.  He served eight years as North Carolina’s elected State Superintendent of Public Instruction, before taking his crusade for better schools to Congress. 
 
Elected to Congress in 1996, Etheridge currently serves on the House Agriculture and Science Committees and is the Co-Chairman of the Democratic Caucus’ Education Task Force.  During the 106th Congress, the Speaker of the House appointed him to the Bipartisan Working Group on Youth Violence.  He is a member of the New Democrat Coalition, a group of moderate pro-business Democrats, and is the original Co-Chairman of the Manufactured Housing Caucus.  He served as Democratic At-Large Whip from 2008-2011.
 
He has since served as Executive Director of the North Carolina office of the Farm Service Agency.