Popular retired pastor, 87, is attacked in home

The brutal beating of a popular 87-year-old pastor at his North Columbia house during an apparent home invasion has stunned his family and friends.

The Rev. Tryon Eichelberger Sr., known for his charitable giving, his many hobbies, his business interests, his energetic personality and the many vegetables he often gives away from his large backyard garden, is in critical condition at Palmetto Health Richland, family members said Tuesday.

He has not regained consciousness since the late Sunday night beating, they said.

“The type of person he is, we never thought nobody would do this to him,” said Evans Eichelberger, 65, a cab driver-preacher and one of the pastor’s seven living children.

His father, a widower, suffered injuries to the back of the head and a broken shoulder where police believe someone struck him with a metal pipe in his home at about 11:30 p.m., Evans Eichelberger said.

A pipe believed to be the weapon was recovered across the street from the home, according to a police incident report. A visitor arriving at the home called 911 after seeing someone fleeing the house, the report said.

An officer arriving at Eichelberger’s one-story brick house on Isaac Street found the front door forced open and the pastor on the kitchen floor “with a large laceration on his head,” according to the report. It was unclear what the motive might have been; no items were believed missing.

Eichelberger was taken to Palmetto Health Richland “with life-threatening injuries,” according to a city news release.

Family members, who gathered at the Isaac Street house where Eichelberger has lived some 50 years, wanted people to know about the kind man they know.

Eichelberger retired several years ago from the AME Church. He had been the longtime pastor of Cedar Creek AME on Monticello Road, his sons said.

But their father continued a ministry called the Trinity House of Help and Mercy, which he ran out of the Blue Ribbon cab headquarters at 6400 N. Main St.

As part of that ministry, the pastor would give food and small amounts of money to people who had a need, such as paying a bill, said Evans Eichelberger.

Sunday night, he said, his father was expecting a visitor to pick up some money, or a check, for a need.

“He believed in helping people all of his life, and he was a giver,” said Alonzo Eichelberger, 49, another son.

Eichelberger’s sons described him as a multi-talented man whose many interests have given him an enormously wide circle of friends.

For many years, he sang in a local quartet and, with his excellent tenor voice, was one of the leaders. He played the guitar and wrote songs; one of his most popular criticized the use of marijuana.

He was a principal in Blue Ribbon, which, with its 100-car fleet, is one of Columbia’s largest cab companies. He once served as company president and is still a stockholder, said Blue Ribbon company secretary Steve English.

“We were shocked,” English said of employees Tuesday.

In his neighborhood of modest homes, Eichelberger is known for his sizable backyard garden, in which he grows a cornucopia of vegetables — onions, squash, beans, tomatoes, cucumbers and collards.

Out front, a host of flowers —an abundance of pansies, and petunias in hanging baskets — welcome visitors.

His children said he always loved physical activity — playing baseball with them (“He was the pitcher.”), taking them fishing. He hunted, and in his spacious sunken living room are two small stuffed animals he had shot — a fox, and a bobcat.

On the wall is the St. Francis prayer, “Lord, where there is hatred, let me sow love.”

Evans Eichelberger said he was trying to find strength in the words his father lived by.

“Knowing what the word of God is, I cannot show any bitterness,” he said.