Only in Beaufort: 'Bob-of-all-trades' serves market, the Lord

In Beaufort, some retirements just don't stick.

Bob Pinkston's is one of them.

Pinkston, 86, "retired" last century after 21 years as a Beaufort County employee. But like many folks at career's end, he soon found himself restless and ready to go back to work.

"I was reading the paper and saw an ad for part-time work at Fordham Hardware," said Pinkston. "I called Duncan (Fordham) and he just said 'when do you want to start?'"

That was in the mid 90s.

Pinkston soon became as much a fixture of Fordham Hardware as the hammocks and hammers.

When Fordham Hardware became Fordham Market in 2004, the operation swapped nuts and bolts for retail space for various businesses and artists.

Pinkston, who already done it once, turned down a second retirement and stuck with the new business model.

He still comes in and works a few hours a week to help cover lunches. He does the sort of things other employees don't -- changing the lightbulbs or using his locksmith skills to cut new keys on the key machine, a holdover from the hardware days.

The nearly 30 merchants who rent space in the market rely on Pinkston for odd electrical and mechanical jobs.

"Bob has the attitude that he's never too old to tackle a project, and I can't keep him off the ladder," said Fordham. "In fact, if he sees me on it he'll nearly push me off to get up and do it himself -- that's just the kind of guy he is."

The folks at the market also rely on his demeanor.

Fordham describes him as a "true southern gentleman" with a positive outlook.

Pinkston moved to Beaufort from North Carolina in 1949 after he married Betty Helmick. Together they helped her family run the Greenlawn Drive-In near present-day Kmart. He later worked for Paul Schwartz at Beaufort Hardware in the 1960s. The it was on to the county and a less than successful retirement.

While he's outlived most of the downtown merchants from that era, his versatility and availability live on.

"I call him the 'Bob-of-all-trades,'" said Fordham. "He covers lunches, vacations, sick days...I fully expect him to outlast me."

Not that climbing ladders and screwing in light bulbs is all he can do.

His has what co-workers call considerable culinary skills. His homemade cookies and preserves are treasured almost as much as his affability.

Those treats are sweetened by his approach to life.

"I've never heard him say a bad thing about anyone, and he's totally dedicated to family, church, the Masonic Lodge and his work here at Fordham Market," said Fordham. "The good Lord made a good servant in Bob Pinkston."

Pinkston cites the same high power.

"I'll be here as long as the good Lord lets me," he said.

Ryan Copeland is a Beaufort native. He can be reached at rlcopeland@hargray.com.

This story was originally published August 28, 2015 at 12:48 PM with the headline "Only in Beaufort: 'Bob-of-all-trades' serves market, the Lord."