Photo from the Island Packet 6/10/10

The Beaufort 45 Reef is getting some new neighbors today.  Old personnel carriers from the Army will get a new home today.  After being stripped of all equipment and degreased they are ready to become habitat for the reef.  The carriers will become home to small marine life which will eventually attract larger game fish for our local sports fishing enthusiast.

It is a welcome addition to the artificial reefs along the South Carolina coast.

Thanks

Copy Right Charlie B Fraser 2010

I keep hearing people complain about the Compass Rose Park on Pope Avenue & New Orleans Rd. I wonder if the people who are complaining have been to the park. If they had been to the park I don’t believe they would be complaining. The Town of Hilton Head Island and Ed Drain did a wonderful job with designing and building the park. The landscaping has begun to mature and will only get better with time. I went by the other day and took some pictures of the flowers, Wall boards depicting the history of the island, and the statue of Charles E Fraser. Yes, it is a tribute to my family and a well deserved one. So if you haven’t been by the park, take the time to go and enjoy the beautiful landscape, swing sets, pavilion overlooking Boggy Gut Swamp, or twirl on the compass rose, while admiring the many fountains that eventually reach Boggy Gut Swamp. Copyright Charlie B Fraser 2010 Photographs Property of Charlie B Fraser 2010

 This is a Blog posted by a fellow friend and realtor on Hilton Head Island.  I could have rewritten it it in my own words, but I felt Robbie had done a good job.

Charlie B Fraser

By KATE CERVE
kcerve@beaufortgazette.com
843-706-8177
Published Friday, April 30, 2010

Retired developer receives honorary degree
Joseph B. Fraser Jr., business leader, environmental preservationist and public servant, received an honorary doctoral degree at Friday's University of South Carolina Beaufort commencement. USCB Chancellor Jane Upshaw said Fraser pioneered conservation-minded communities that incorporated wildlife preserves and protected green space. He helped keep the Heritage Classic golf tournament alive in the 1980s and helped form the Heritage Classic Foundation.  In the school's 50th year, leaders of the University of South Carolina Beaufort traced the community's more than 200-year history of higher education that began with Beaufort College.

At Friday's graduation ceremony, the 222 members of USCB's class of 2010 -- the university's largest graduating class yet -- recalled the changes they saw.

Graduate Ben Lipscomb said the library didn't exist when he started at USCB. There weren't any athletics programs, either. Or the Sand Sharks mascot.

"There are a lot more people now," Lipscomb said. "Watching it grow was pretty neat."

"When I first got there, there was no student center," graduate Chelsia Hopkins said. "And now, we have the cafeteria and the gym and the student lounge. There have been a lot of great changes I've seen."

This year's commencement ceremony marked the first time Chancellor Jane Upshaw wore a traditional chancellor's medallion, after the Trustees of the College of Beaufort donated it to the university in April.

Even the language in the diploma changed.

"The diplomas the class of 2010 receives will recognize for the first time -- officially -- USCB's independent accreditation as a baccalaureate campus," Harris Pastides, president of USC, told the graduates.

Upshaw thanked the graduates for their contributions to the university's growth.

"Through your accomplishments, you have built USCB's reputation in our region and our state," she said.

Jonathan Green, acclaimed artist and Gullah conservationist, delivered the commencement address and encouraged the graduates to look to their country's past to understand the culture of the world they live in.

He spoke about the African farmers who brought skills to South Carolina's rice-growing region and made rice one of the most profitable industries in early America. Rice brought people together and still can, said Green, who was born in Gardens Corner.

"I want you to understand what a magnificent culture we are, where we came from, who we are," Green said. "... You are a product of this culture, regardless of your color, your religion. You are the future of this culture."

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The above article is from the Island Packet.

I am very proud of my father and what he has done for this community for over fifty five years, from the days as a logger, a home builder, a land planner, a philanthropy as Chairman of the Heritage Classic Foundation.

I would like to express my thanks to the USC board for bestowing the honorary degree to my father, Joseph B Fraser.

For all the residents of Beaufort and Jasper Counties I encourage you to get behind what USCB is doing. Chancel Jane Upshaw is doing a great job at USCB and it will be an integral part of our economic growth, and diversity in the types of companies that locate in Beaufort & Jasper Counties.

Charlie B Fraser copyright 2010

Samuel Arnal 10, stands by the staute dedicated to his grandfather Charles Fraser during it's unveiling at the Compass Rose park on Hilton Head Island. " He loves that photo," said Samuels mother, Laura Lawton Fraser. "He's always imitating the walk at home" / Sarah Welliver/ The Island Packet

 

 By ROB WILE rwile@islandpacket.com 843-706-8138 Published Saturday, April 17, 2010

Hilton Head Island residents saw history cast forever into bronze Saturday at the unveiling of the Charles E. Fraser Statue in Compass Rose Park. The statue is the product of several years of planning by the Community Foundation of the Lowcountry and its Public Art Fund, created in 2005. It depicts the photograph that appeared in the March 3, 1962, edition of the Saturday Evening Post showing Fraser walking with an alligator on the Sea Pines Ocean Course. Fraser, who died in 2002, founded the Sea Pines Co. in 1956, and the photograph helped put Hilton Head on the map as a tourist destination. Many members of Fraser's family were in attendance at the park on Pope Avenue, including his widow, Mary Fraser. "It's wonderful to have his feet back on the land," she said. "He came, he saw, he did. He perceived what others did not and took a stand for it." Laura Lawton Fraser praised her father's legacy of having created opportunities for tourism on Hilton Head while preserving the local environment. She said his experiences studying land-use covenants as a law student at Yale University were an important step in forming his vision for the island. "That's when he knew he could take something beautiful and keep it beautiful," she said. Mayor Tom Peeples was on hand to dedicate the statue, as were acolytes of Fraser's in the development community. Jim Chaffin, a Heritage Classic Foundation board member who worked for Fraser at the Sea Pines Co. and later started his own development firm, discussed Fraser's unique approach to development, including the addition of bike lanes, which Chaffin said were a novelty in the 1960s. "Who else had a line item in their budget for 'fun and sizzle'?" he said. The total cost of the statue was $126,000, said Carolyn Torgersen, vice president for marketing and communications for the Community Foundation, with all money raised through private contributions. The Community Foundation commissioned sculptor Susie Chisholm of Savannah to create the Fraser statue, which measures just over 6 feet tall. Darrell Davis of Texas sculpted the 10-foot-long alligator.

 

The above article is from the Island Packet. It was a beautiful morning, and a nice dedication to my uncle Charles. Jim Chaffin gave a nice speech about Charles and how he inspired others to make Hilton Head what it is today. My aunt Mary and my cousins Wymann Davis and laura Lawton Fraser were on hand with their children all present. Below is a picture of my family wife Linda son Charles Elliott and my son's girlfriend Alex Corby. Three generations of Charles Fraser's.

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