Community mourns Dickie Phelps, the Daufuskie man who was ‘larger than life’
Behind the larger-than-life legend that was Richard “Dickie” Phelps was a man.
A man who adored his family. A man who ran toward a sinking boat to help instead of running away. A man who was unimpressed by those looking to impress him. A man who, despite not having much from a material sense, was willing to share whatever he had. A man who was always the person wayfarers remembered.
Phelps, whose body was recovered from a Beaufort County waterway Tuesday morning, was a 63-year-old husband and father, and had been missing for five days. But in the cold and wind that followed his disappearance, neighbors, friends and family searched tirelessly for him.
“We will be back tomorrow and every day after until we find you,” Joe Rowland, Phelps’ friend wrote in a social media post.
Long white beard, ponytail and hands covered in oil
Years before loved ones scoured the waterways and the island’s shoreline searching for him, Phelps was just another man stepping off the boat onto Daufuskie.
Phelps first arrived to the bridgeless island more than 20 years ago to work in the concrete business. Before that, his friends say, he lived in several places, including Ohio. Throughout his life, he held a variety of jobs that required his hands.
In photos, Phelps, with his long white beard, ponytail and polarized sunglasses perched on his head, is often captured with his sleeves rolled up, hands covered in oil, busy with a vehicle part or buried beneath the hood of a car. He had worked in factories, in garages, on boats, on semi-trailers, on cars, on motorcycles.
Most recently, Phelps worked at J & J Garage, a small business on Daufuskie that repairs the island’s main mode of transportation: golf carts. He had a lot to offer the younger generation of mechanics he was surrounded by, Josh Knose, one of the garage’s two ‘J’s’ and a friend of Phelps’, said.
He was also just plain old tough. A former United States Marine, he naturally embodied resilience and grit. No one remembers him for anything particular he wore around the shop other than a pocket knife.
“He didn’t give up. He just kept going on stuff, even if it got tough,” Knose said.
‘God only made one Dickie Phelps’
Phelps defied stereotypes.
Despite being somewhat of a “rough and tumble” kind of guy with “a vocabulary that you would expect to go along with that,” Pastor Aaron Crosby said, “he would do his absolute best to hold his tongue around me, to not swear, not speak with colorful language.”
For a man known for saying exactly what was on his mind, that kind of consideration was “even more remarkable,” Crosby said. “He had a genuine respect for me and I for him.”
When asked what Phelps valued most, the answer from his friends was clear: family. Phelps was a father and husband to his wife, Dee. The couple was married for nearly 40 years.
“God only made one Dickie Phelps,” Crosby said. “But because he made one Dickie Phelps, he had to make a Dee Phelps to go with him.”
“If you came to the island one time and met Dickie at any number of places, you would have been struck by this larger than life figure,” Crosby said. “That’s just how he automatically came across. But to me and to many others here on the island, there was a man behind the myth,” Crosby said.
This story was originally published February 27, 2026 at 5:00 AM.
