News

April 2 2025

Hilton Head Island Hall of Fame presented by the Hilton Head Island Rotary Club

May 8th

12:00 - 1:30 PM

The Veranda at Arthur Hills

2 Leamington Lane

The Palmetto Dunes Oceanfront Resort

Business Attire

Tickets will need to be purchased in advance. No tickets will be sold the day of the event.

We will be taking payment for tickets after our Rotary meetings for the next several weeks.

Alternatively, you can buy tickets and sign up for the event with the links below:

Sign Up

We are limiting our Hall of Fame event to 100 Rotarians and guests.

March 30 2025

History

The Hilton Head Hall of Fame is a gift to the community from the Rotary Club of Hilton Head Island. It celebrates those individuals, "Founders", who made a material difference in the quality of life on the Island. Long-time Island residents have watched advances made in education, the arts, health care, business, tourism, self-rule and social responsibility. They realized these achievements came as a direct result of heroic efforts of men and women who were passionate about Hilton Head Island. They feared that, as the Island matured and grew, these pioneering visionaries would be lost to memory. Therefore, the Rotary Club of Hilton Head Island created a sacred space called the Hall of Fame in 2012 to honor those who went before to make Hilton Head Island a wonderful place to work, play and live. Each Founder has had a significant and enduring impact on Hilton Head Island in the 20th or 21st Century.

Bronze plaques, featuring a picture of the Founder and a brief description of accomplishments, are set on tabby pedestals at the Coastal Discovery Museum at Honey Horn.

Purpose

The purpose of the Hilton Head Island Hall of Fame is to recognize and honor the people, past and present, who made extraordinary and enduring contributions to our Hilton Head Island community.

The Rotary Club of Hilton Head Island established the Hall of Fame to be educational. It is to inform today's decisions and tomorrow's visions by documenting and celebrating the distinctive core values on which our community was founded.

Criteria

Founders are people who:

Achieved noteworthy accomplishments that have had an enduring effect on our community's ethos.

Dreamed big dreams for Hilton Head Island and brought them to reality, daring to be different.

Gave time, knowledge, talent, treasure and personal resources to create a community that is deeply rooted in volunteerism and a philanthropic spirit.

Set community core values to include an emphasis on education, the arts, faith, local history and culture, health and wellness, environmental preservation, social services, recreation, hospitality, and a built environment that blends with the island's lush nature.

Sustained or improved the quality of life for residents.

Pointedly influenced a unique community by seizing upon the rare opportunity to shape a special place, both before and after development began in the mid-20th century.

Pillars are people who have:

Reflected the ideals of Founders.

Achieved noteworthy accomplishments that have served as important building blocks in creating today's community.

Embraced, supported, preserved, promoted, and expanded upon the vision and core values that make Hilton Head Island a special community.

Prioritized community core values to include an emphasis on education, the arts, faith, local history and culture, health and wellness, environmental preservation, social services, recreation, hospitality, volunteerism, philanthropy, and a built environment that blends with the island's lush nature.

Have sustained or improved the quality of life for island residents in a consistent effort over time.

Hall of Fame Founders

Founder Class

Charles FraserJune 13, 1929 - December 15, 2002

Charles Fraser's uncommon vision, love of beauty, and high standards transformed Hilton Head Island into a world-class resort and place to live. He pioneered ideas in Sea Pines that 50 years later seemed the norm nationally. He bent development to the natural setting rather than the other way around, he championed open space, he controlled the look and feel of neighborhoods through legally binding land-use covenants, he encouraged recreation and public gathering places for all ages, he produced land of value by building new golf courses, and he put a great premium on tracking demographics and the recreational habits of America, all in pursuit of creating memorable experiences and special places, his true legacies.

Fred HackFebruary 16, 1914 - January 10, 1978

Fred Hack's love of nature and care for people were the formative building blocks for a new community he helped shape from forestland. When Hilton Head Islanders talked about Fred Hack, they always had a dilemma; they couldn't decide whether to call him a land developer or a philanthropist, an environmentalist or a churchman, a gold bullion expert or an amateur archaeologist, a farmer or a corporate executive. He influenced all phases of life for more than a quarter century after moving his young family to Honey Horn in 1950. He helped shape the roads, bridges and neighborhoods. His family and business associates donated land for fire stations, a church, the airport, a daycare center for working families, a charitable thrift store, a county health center and more. He was interested in the welfare of every part of Hilton Head and all its residents.

Charlotte HeinrichsJanuary 19, 1907 - December 9, 2001

Care for humanity made Charlotte Heinrichs "Hilton Head Island's Mother Teresa." In founding the Deep Well Project to combat the ills of Lowcountry poverty, Mrs. Heinrichs showed how much one person can do when results are the object, not who gets credit. And how a common sense, eye-to-eye approach has much more power than a committee. She hit the streets, meeting needs where they existed. Mrs. Heinrichs broke down racial barriers, earning the trust of native islanders who were naturally skeptical of the flood of white newcomers changing their Gullah homeland. She earned the trust — and help — of the medical profession, the clergy, the bureaucracy, the media, law enforcement, civic organizations, merchants, grocers, bankers, educators, the well-heeled and the down-and- out as she ensured that everyone had the basic necessities for decent living.

Charles Simmons Sr.July 15, 1905 - May 10, 2005

Charlie Simmons led an energetic, visionary, helpful and devout life until he died in 2005, just two months short of his 100th birthday. He was the lifeline for remote Gullah communities on Hilton Head Island and his native Daufuskie Island. Before the bridge to Hilton Head, it was in "Cap'n Charlie's" sailboats and then motor boats that butter beans, watermelons, shrimp, oysters and crab made it to market in Savannah. And he brought home supplies the people and merchants needed. He got students to school and midwives to the bedside no matter the hour. He quietly served as a pilot, deacon, banker, loan officer, merchant, mailman and role model to generations.

Hilton Head Island Hall of Fame

Presented by the Rotary Club of Hilton Head Island

Nominations for Hilton Head Island Hall of Fame 2025