Longtime Beaufort boat captain who helped start famed Shrimp Shack dies
A longtime Beaufort shrimper who helped spawn a must-stop Lowcountry food destination died Monday.
Robert “Bob” Upton, 82, was surrounded by family at his marshfront home of more than 60 years on St. Helena Island when he died, his obituary said.
Upton, with his wife Hilda Gay Upton, started the Shrimp Shack on Sea Island Parkway in 1978. They worked together to craft its signature menu item, the shrimp burger, sought after by locals, tourists and celebrities who pass the unassuming spot that serves as one of the last outposts on the way to beaches at Harbor, Hunting and Fripp islands.
Upton shrimped the coastal Atlantic waters for more than 40 years based at the dock of the Gay Fish Co., owned by Hilda and her brothers, Charles and Robert.
“He was a very good shrimper. It just comes natural to some people,” said Charles Gay, Upton’s brother-in-law. “And he could go to Key West and catch shrimp; he could stay right here and catch shrimp. He was a hard-working shrimper and he loved the industry.”
Upton had been in declining health in recent years, Gay said. The Shrimp Shack closed July 29 for what was described as a family emergency before sharing word of Upton’s death Monday morning.
A memorial service will be held at a later date.
Upton grew up in the St. Helena community of Lands End and was a two-sport athlete at Beaufort High School. He spent four years on active duty in the U.S. Coast Guard and married Hilda in 1959.
“Hilda and I talked about it, and she said, ‘You can come work for my Daddy (John Henry Gay). He always needs a captain for his shrimp boat,’” Upton said in the book “Tide Runners,” by author and photographer Tim Barnwell. “So I left the Coast Guard in 1959 and ran a boat for Mr. Gay for about six years. Then I had an opportunity to buy a boat from a friend of mine in Rockville, and from then on, I went into it for myself.”
He trawled the waters off the coasts of Florida, Georgia and South Carolina for more than 40 years before retiring in 2004. One of his boats, “Miss Hilda,” made a cameo in the hit movie “Forrest Gump.” and the load of shrimp that actor Tom Hanks drops on the deck after the film’s hurricane scene was bought from Gay Fish Co.
Hanks and other Hollywood stars fell for the shrimp burger while in town filming. And Hanks offered a nod to the restaurant in his later film, “That Thing You Do,” featuring the fictitious band “Cap’n Geech and the Shrimp Shack Shooters.”
The Shrimp Shack has been praised in publications such as the New York Times and Southern Living.
Upton was an advocate for local shrimp, at one point presiding over a regional organization of shrimpers.
A secret to the Shrimp Shack burger’s success was in the fresh catch that traveled only across the highway from the Gay Fish dock before being peeled and pounded into patties to fry, though the exact recipe is a closely guarded secret.
For decades Upton’s family, work and spiritual lives were within a neat geographic circle on St. Helena. He was one of the founding members of St. Helena Baptist Church when the community decided it needed a house of worship to keep from driving into Beaufort. He was an ordained deacon, taught Sunday school and served with longtime friend Davis Dempsey.
The Dempsey and Upton families were close and during the Beaufort Water Festival piled on to Upton’s trawler for the trip downtown for the boat parade. But friends were not close enough to be privy to the lauded shrimp burger recipe.
“That’s one of the family secrets,” said Joyce Dempsey, Davis’ wife and Upton’s high school classmate. “... He was a good man. It’s going to be a great loss to the community, I know that.”
