Eris has also served as President of the Board of Trustees for the Conrad Hilton Memorial Park and Community Center since August, 1984. As a member of the Hilton board, he helped to raise the funds that were necessary to restore and maintain the old Mobley building, which was the first hotel that was owned by Conrad Hilton.

Eris was the Mayor of Cisco from 1981 to 1986, and was active in the Cisco Rotary Club throughout his life. He was responsible for organizing the annual Rotary Citizenship Awards Program, which has recognized outstanding student citizens at Cisco High for the last 50 years.

Eris is a long-time member and deacon of the Cisco Church of Christ, where he has also served in other leadership roles, including coordination of the Cisco Meals on Wheels program for 25 years. He served as a board member for World Christian Broadcasting for 20 years. WCB is an organization that utilizes short wave radio to reach large segments of the world’s population with Christian-oriented programming. He continued as an honorary member of the WCB board until his death. 

Shortly after college, Eris taught Band at Trent High School, Cisco High School, and Cisco Junior College. Later, he served as Public Relations director at CJC, where he helped to arrange multiple appearances of the CJC Wrangler Band and Belles in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade.

While still in college, Eris was the owner and director of summer camps for twirlers, drum majors, and cheerleaders. After experiencing success with the sale of commemorative patches and emblems to various High School and College marching bands, Eris eventually expanded his business operations into Southwest Enterprises, which to this day continues to supply patches and emblems to various groups and events throughout the nation. Southwest also continues to operate a successful series of summer camps.

Eris was born in Athens, Alabama. During his younger years, he developed a talent at playing the piano, and eventually became an accomplished musician. He went on to become the drum major for the Abilene Christian College “Big Purple” marching band. He graduated from ACC with a B.A. in Music Education and an M.A. in School Administration.