Daufuskie Island loses a strong spirit
Dave Hutton was a child of Daufuskie Island.
He knew it all — driving golf carts at age 7, rafting through freshwater wetlands, hiking out to hummocks to camp overnight, diving off the pilings at the county dock, the two-room schoolhouse on an island with no bridge and the 6:30 a.m. boat to Hilton Head Island for high school.
He also was a man of Daufuskie — standing 6-foot-8 and north of 400 pounds, with a rumbling voice from behind the beard, a booming laugh from beneath the long hair, and the laid back, jovial lifestyle with his pickup truck and Daisy the dog.
When islanders gathered at the county dock on Thursday, Oct. 6, as Hurricane Matthew was obviously headed to hit them, it was natural that Hutton took charge. Everyone told where they’d be and said they’d check on each other after the storm.
They’d already made national news by defying the governor’s evacuation order. She was going to send a posse to get them, like “Gunsmoke” by the sea. But they were branded the “Daufuskie 100,” like renegades, and they laid low.
They weren’t really renegades, and Hutton proved it.
He had been elected to the Daufuskie Island Council, which tries to bridge the wide and choppy waters between islanders themselves, and between Daufuskie and the county seat.
When dawn broke on Saturday, Oct. 8, word was that everyone survived the hurricane. But trees were down everywhere, and there was no electricity. Winds were still stiff when Hutton and company started sawing their way out of the mess. They cut trees and pushed them out of the way for the next four days, 12 hours a day.
Then Hutton took his annual hunting trip with buddies to Montana.
And on Nov. 4, Daufuskie was still reeling from the hurricane when it heard that Hutton would not be coming home. He died out there of heart problems. He was only 27.
Deborah Smith, a fellow member of the Daufuskie Island Council, said, “Dave was a giant on Daufuskie, and it is impossible to overstate his importance to our island’s community. Dave didn’t just live on Daufuskie — he was Daufuskie.”
‘By example’
Hutton came by his Daufuskie bona fides naturally.
He’s one of three boys born to Chris and Martha Hutton, all raised on Daufuskie. Chris was a child of Tybee Island who came to Daufuskie to build the Melrose dock. Bud Bates introduced him to Martha, who had come south to be in a friend’s wedding and never left. Her friends were sailing the world and stopped on Hilton Head because it’s where they ran out of money. Chris and Martha would soon have their own wedding — a dock party at Harbour Town.
Dave Hutton was a student of Catherine Campbell in Daufuskie’s little grade school. He came along long after Pat Conroy made it famous with his book, “The Water is Wide.” He came after teachers Jim and Carol Alberto had moved to Hilton Head but was warmly welcomed by Jim Alberto as his homeroom teacher at Hilton Head Island Middle School.
Hutton became a lineman for the Hilton Head Island High School Seahawks, getting home from school at 9 p.m. after practices. He won a writing award in middle school. He was one of the first kids to hit a baseball slap out of Crossings Park. And at Hilton Head High, he was elected Homecoming King.
He was a people person but also independent. Between a couple of stints in college, he traveled alone with a backpack, touring Costa Rica by bus or studying the Mayan ruins on the Yucatan Peninsula.
As a toddler, he had insisted his mother give the change to charity whenever they got to a fast-food drive-through window. He learned about public service from his father, a founder of the volunteer fire department.
“He led by example,” said writer Roger Pinckney XI of Daufuskie. “I never heard him say a bad thing about anyone, and on this political island that’s hard to say.”
‘His last gift’
Hutton liked to read history but kept an eye on the future.
And when he was elected to the island council, he read the entire planning document adopted by Beaufort County.
“He was really stepping up on the council,” said islander Wendy Nelthorpe. “He was fair, and he loved Daufuskie. He cared about the island. He was a valuable voice for the people of the historic district.”
His father, who also died young just two years ago, had helped create Daufuskie’s community preservation plan. Dave Hutton shared the dream that Daufuskie would not be ruined by future development.
Everyone knew Dave Hutton was ill last summer.
In June, he fell off his backhoe. He thought some of that pain came from a cracked rib, but it was discovered to be many blood clots on his lungs, his mother said.
In September, they found an old blood clot near his heart. He was going to get it tended to in January.
After a week in Montana, he awoke not feeling well. He died en route to a hospital, his mother said.
“He lived every day like it was his last,” Martha Hutton said. “He had no regrets.”
Daufuskie Islanders found solace telling stories about Hutton on Facebook.
Nelthorpe circulated a photo she took of him last summer. He was teaching a new generation of Daufuskie kids the art of dock diving.
“He ramrodded the initial (hurricane) recovery, his last gift to the island he loved,” Pinckney wrote. “His spirit was strong, but his heart was weak.”
David Lauderdale: 843-706-8115, @ThatsLauderdale
Special report
10 unsung heroes of Hurricane Matthew
Oct. 28, 2016 Hurricane Matthew battered thousands of buildings and trees and caused widespread power outages and flooding throughout the Lowcountry in the early morning hours of Oct. 8. But the Category 2 storm didn’t dampen the resolve of residents determined to help their neighbors – and complete strangers – who were suffering. | READ
Oct. 21, 2016 Those who didn't evacuate for Matthew tell us about their night. | READ
This story was originally published November 17, 2016 at 10:39 AM with the headline "Daufuskie Island loses a strong spirit."