Robert Harrill

Robert Harrill
Robert Harrill sitting outside his bunker and greeting his many visitors.
Born	February 2, 1893 Gaffney, South Carolina
Died	June 3, 1972 (aged 79) Fort Fisher south of Kure Beach, North Carolina
Occupation	farmer, mill worker, Works Progress Administration laborer, travelling salesman and hermit
Spouse(s)	Katie Hamrick
Children	Alvin, Boge, Edward, Luther and Nelli Kate

Robert E. Harrill (February 2, 1893 – June 3, 1972) was an American man known as "The Fort Fisher Hermit". He became a hermit in 1955 at the age of 62 after a string of unsuccessful and unsatisfying jobs and a failed marriage. Harrill hitchhiked to Fort Fisher on the North Carolina Coast from Morganton, North Carolina, a distance of 260 miles (418 km). He had been committed to a mental hospital in Morganton by his in-laws, after his wife, Katie Hamrick, left him and asked for a divorce. Harrill apparently walked away from the hospital or made a key from an old spoon and used the key to escape the facility.

The name "The Fort Fisher Hermit" came from Fort Fisher State Recreation Area, where he settled after leaving the mental institution in Morganton. Soon after arriving at Fort Fisher, Robert Harrill was arrested as a vagrant and sent to his hometown of Shelby by the sheriff's department with the help of the Traveler's Aide society. He returned the following summer and set up a simple home in an abandoned World War II era bunker near the Cape Fear River along a salt marsh (33°57′28.80″N 77°55′49.41″W / 33.9580000°N 77.9303917°W / 33.9580000; -77.9303917). He was able to gather much of the food that he needed from the salt marsh and the nearby oyster beds. Harrill learned many of his survival skills from Empie Hewett, a true hermit, who also lived in the salt marshes of the Fort Fisher area.