Pungo River Pharmacy was started in 1971 by James “Jim” Ellis. Jim was born in 1921 in Cincinnati, Ohio. His uncle Charlie put him through pharmacy school after World War II. Jim worked as a pharmacist for Walgreens during the 1950s and 1960s. In 1966, he felt the call of the ministry and went to Divinity School at Duke. He worked for 5 years as a Methodist minister in the Belhaven and Bath region of Eastern North Carolina. Jim decided to go back into pharmacy in 1971, but he still remained heavily involved in his church. He started Pungo River Pharmacy which is still in operation today.

Scott Ellis, the son of Jim Ellis, started working in Pungo River Pharmacy when it opened. He worked there up until he graduated from John A. Wilkinson High School. He then went to a bible college in upstate New York, and worked in a drug rehabilitation clinic in Pompano Beach, Florida. Two years later he decided he wanted to become a pharmacist and started his college education. Scott got his pharmacy degree at UNC Chapel Hill, and became the owner and pharmacy manager of Pungo River Pharmacy in 1985.