Charles E. Fraser

Fraser was born to Joseph Bacon Fraser and Pearl Collins Fraser in Hinesville, Georgia, (sister of Cecil Collins Sr.) on June 13, 1929. His older brother, Joseph Bacon Fraser Jr., was his business partner at Sea Pines. Charles's father, Joseph, was a prominent Hinesville figure, a U.S. Army veteran of World War I, World War II, and the Korean War, last serving as Major General, commanding the 48th Armored Division of Georgia and Florida Army National Guard before retiring a Lieutenant General in 1956. More importantly for the start of Charles's career, his father was active in the timber industry as head of the Fraser Lumber Company and the Fraser Supply Company.

In 1946, he enrolled at Presbyterian College in Clinton, South Carolina, and attended until 1948, when he transferred to the University of Georgia. In 1949, while Fraser was at the Terry College of Business at the University of Georgia, a group of lumber associates from Hinesville, Georgia, bought a total of 20,000 acres of pine forest on Hilton Head's southern end for an average of nearly $60 an acre. They formed The Hilton Head Company to handle the timber operation. The associates were Gen. Joseph B. Fraser, Fred C. Hack, Olin T. McIntosh, and C.C. Stebbins. Charles's brother Joe Jr., was sent by their father to undeveloped Hilton Head Island to cruise and estimate the timber value, setting up camp on Calibogue Cay off the south end of the island.

In the summer of 1950, Charlie Fraser worked in the island logging camp, after he graduated from the University of Georgia and before he entered Yale Law School. At the time there were only about 500 people living on Hilton Head. They were mostly farmers and oyster workers who traveled by boat to Savannah to sell their products. Fraser was entranced by the island and saw its potential to attract many more people to its beautiful beaches, virgin pine forests and rich groves of great live oaks. He convinced his father to give him a twenty-year note on the land and complete legal control. Fraser entered law school in the fall and made the development of a master plan the focus of his education.

After Yale Law School, Fraser practiced law briefly with Hull, Willingham, Towell, and Norman in Augusta, Georgia, and served in the U.S. Air Force, working in the office of the general counsel in Washington, D.C.

1963: Marries Mary Wyman Stone of Greenville, South Carolina. The couple have two daughters, Mary Wyman Stone Fraser Davis and Laura Lawton Fraser.

1963-1966: Served two terms as Chairman and Vice Chairman of the Beaufort County Council.

1969-1970: Charles E. Fraser and Fred Hack fight BASF form developing a chemical plan on the Colleton River in Victoria Bluff near Bluffton, SC and the present site of South Carolina DNR's Waddell Mariculture Center.

1974-1975: Served as the Chair of National Recreation and Park Association.

1981: With Phil and Linda Lader, helped organize Renaissance Weekend that was held annually over New Year's Weekend on Hilton Head Island for more than 15 years.

1991: Diagnosed with cancer.

2001: Guest lectured at Clemson University for their Real Estate Development curriculums. He would later have a Clemson Advancement Foundation Endowment and the Hilton Head Island/Charles E. Fraser Professorship in Community Design and Human Ecology in his name.

Sold Daws Island, an archeological site and maritime hammock in Port Royal Sound to the State of South Carolina. Charles's nephew West Fraser, a famous plein air artist in Charleston, SC, would later paint many of his subjects there.

Charles died on December 15, 2002 when the 28-foot chartered Sun Dance yacht exploded and threw him, his wife, youngest daughter and others into the water. The accident caused him to drown, authorities said. The accident occurred near Providenciales in the Turks and Caicos Islands. At his eulogy a week later, his wife, Mary said when the explosion occurred, Fraser did not know it was coming. "He was looking at the coastline of the development of the Turks and Caicos," Mary Fraser said. "He wanted to do that. It was a beautiful day."