Christopher Benton McLeod

Christopher Benton McLeod, age 29, of Carthage was born April 25, 1991 in Pinehurst, NC and passed away on February 27, 2021.

Christopher grew up on the 100-year-old McLeod Farm in the Eureka/Farm Life community.  He graduated from Union Pines High School where he was a member of the National Honor Society and the football team.  Christopher’s love for flying grew out of his Senior Year Project where he worked to obtain his Pilot’s License and flew to every airport in NC while participating in the Operation Fly NC program.

Family and friends remember Christopher’s exuberant flying, skiing, deep sea fishing and diving.  Christopher loved to fish often with some of his closest friends and family.

Christopher worked on the McLeod Farm from the time he was a small child.  He could repair complex machinery, plow, combine or plant from an early age.  Christopher continued to work on the farm while attending Sandhills Community College and through his graduation with a BS in Civil Engineering from NC State University.  Although he was offered engineering jobs after graduation, Christopher’s heart called him to the pines of Moore County.  In 2012, he married his high school sweetheart, Julie Faulkner.  

Christopher and his brothers, Martin and Patrick pioneered growing organic vegetables and hemp on land farmed by 5 generations of their family. In 2017, The McLeod boys worked to establish Farm Life Hemp www.farmlifehemp.com becoming the first organic hemp farm and one of the first farm to table micro distilleries in NC. 

A Renaissance thinker, Christopher was a person of many passions. Christopher excelled in applying his intellectual knowledge. Christopher and his wife Julie spent hours planning and working on their home as Christopher determinedly studied all aspects of home energy and building. Christopher and Julie brought their newborn Hugh into their newly constructed home in 2019.

Christopher was a life-long member of Eureka Presbyterian Church. The family is deeply grateful to the Eureka Presbyterian Church, the Farm Life, and Moore County communities for their kindnesses to Christopher during recent years and to his family now. 

Christopher is survived by his devoted wife Julie; his beloved son Hugh; parents Joseph and Mary McLeod; brothers Martin and McLeod and wife Casey, Patrick McLeod and wife Rachel; grandfather Herman O. Seawell; father and mother in-law, Ted and Joyce Faulkner;  brother in -law John Faulkner; sisters in-law Shelby Wooten, Dori Guthrie;  niece and nephews Isabella McLeod, Isaac and Zachary McLeod, Madeline and Emma Wooten, Davis and Juliana Guthrie; aunts and uncles Beth McLeod, Sarah Seawell, Bradley and Karen Purcell, Herman and Sharon Seawell, John and Jan Seawell, and 8 cousins.  

Funeral services will be 2:00 PM Saturday, March 6, 2021 on the front lawn at Eureka Presbyterian Church with Pastor Joey Greene officiating. (Please bring a chair.) Burial will follow in the church cemetery. Fry & Prickett Funeral Home will be open to the public from 1:00 – 5:00 pm on Friday for those who want to stop by and sign the register.

Online condolences to the family may be made at PinesFunerals.com.

Services are entrusted to Fry & Prickett Funeral Home.