Beaufort County officials stunned by death of ‘rising star’ engineer, former athlete
Beaufort County officials were stunned this week by the death of a county traffic engineer who had only been recently hired and had already made a lasting impression.
Deja Jackson, 27, died Wednesday at Beaufort Memorial Hospital, a funeral home notice said. Her death was related to a medical call, the county coroner’s office said, but the cause wasn’t known Thursday and an autopsy is pending.
Jackson was a deputy director of traffic and engineering at Beaufort County. She was hired in May after earning a doctorate in transportation and highway engineering from the University of Florida last year.
“We are devastated by Deja’s passing,” County Administrator Ashley Jacobs said in a statement. “She was incredibly bright and capable, and someone I considered a rising star on our staff, someone with a promising future at the county. When we hired her, we were so excited to have someone with her credentials who was also a Beaufort native.”
The St. Helena Island native was a two-sport standout at Beaufort High School, playing basketball and throwing shot put and discus on the track and field team. She earned a track and field scholarship to S.C. State University and later joined the Bulldogs basketball team.
At S.C. State, Jackson was a member of the honors college and her involvement included Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, the American Society of Civil Engineers and the National Society of Black Engineers, the school’s athletics website said. In a biography for the basketball team, she said her ultimate goal was to own her own civil construction business.
She earned masters and doctorate degrees from Florida. In 2018, she was chosen to attend a prestigious conference for future leaders on transportation policy in Washington, D.C., a school news release said.
Jackson had recently returned to the area after working for an engineering firm in Cleveland, Ohio, and teaching as an adjunct professor at Cleveland State.
During her time with the county, Jackson worked on road projects funded by a penny sales tax referendum in 2018. She presented Monday to the County Council public facilities committee during a virtual meeting to award a contract to a consulting firm related to projects on Lady’s Island.
Jackson was a “driven and capable young engineer,” said Jared Fralix, the assistant county administrator for engineering.
“It was hard to keep her busy all the time because she excelled at all the tasks she was given,” Fralix said. “Deja epitomized what a Beaufort County citizen represents — an individual who embodied her heritage and culture, who pursued excellence in education, and possessed the ability and confidence to make a meaningful impact in the world that she lived.”
Herbert Glaze, Jackson’s track coach at Beaufort High, said Jackson’s former teammates and classmates are devastated by her death. He said he called and offered condolences Thursday to Jackson’s mother, Debra, who supported the school and track teams.
Jackson was a standout athlete and model teammate who accepted criticism well and worked to help younger team members, Glaze remembered. He said he heard earlier this year his former pupil was back in town and had planned to stop by and surprise her at the county engineering department in the former United Way building on Boundary Street.
“I said to myself I’m going to go by and see Deja and perhaps get her to come and speak to the track team during our banquet, so they can see a role model and what she has done through the years here and her accomplishments on the track as well as her accomplishment in society,” Glaze said.
“It’s a great loss to the community.”
This story was originally published August 20, 2020 at 3:00 PM.
