Lauderdale: RBC Heritage volunteer defies death to announce again at Harbour Town

Charles Perry should not be alive.

But he is announcing players as they arrive at the ninth green at the RBC Heritage Presented by Boeing.

Between pairings, he gets tubed up to an over-the-shoulder oxygen tank.

And then he moves a sturdy, 82-year-old body robed in plaid plus fours, red jacket, plaid tie, and plaid cap out near the fringe of the popular hole by the Harbour Town clubhouse.

There, Perry manages to shout — with no sissy microphone, using a voice that once sounded like a Harley-Davidson — the name, hometown, and a tiny bio of each player. And he hopes to have the breath this weekend to ask trivia questions for fans between pairings.

Yet, those of us who have ducked into the imaginary world of the PGA Tour’s annual visit to Hilton Head Island like to think we’ve got problems.

Nine years ago, I wrote about Perry contracting lung cancer. The story ran on Easter Sunday as the Heritage brought Perry into the limelight. The point, frankly, was for readers to know what made the man tick, because we all knew he wouldn’t be ticking much longer.

With Stage 3B lung cancer at his age, he faced a 25 percent chance to live five years.

But the next year he was back at the ninth green. Golfers in bright colors wrestled with one of course designer Pete Dye’s more devilish holes. And he was back with other volunteers who ceremonially tell us things we could get on a smartphone app in a colder world.

Spirit of the Heritage

Over that year, Perry had been through lung surgery, chemotherapy and radiation. A man so outgoing his kids and their friends know him as “Big Daddy” had battled depression. And low white blood cell counts, a violent reaction to chemotherapy that almost killed him, dizziness, a brain scan, loss of hearing, loss of energy, steroids, an edoscopy, a colonoscopy, hallucinations and anxiety attacks.

He credited his faith in God and the help of his wife, Patsy, for getting him back out there. Patsy, whom the kids called “Mama P,” died three years ago. And Perry has again been hanging around death’s doorstep.

“He’s the Energizer bunny,” said his son, Alan. “He’s the Timex watch that takes a licking and keeps on ticking.”

Perry was not able to announce last year. And the year before, he came out to announce only one group: Tom Watson, Davis Love III and Jordan Spieth. Perry shared personal links with those guys from his tenure at the ninth hole that began 30 years ago.

Over the past two years, Perry has had pneumonia multiple times. His esophagus has been rebuilt. Twice he’s had MRSA infection in his blood. The chance of survival the first time was 50/50. The odds got grim from there.

And yet he was determined to be at the Heritage this weekend.

He grinds on as a symbol of the whole thing.

Shout with joy

Perry is used to life’s U-turns.

He was orphaned as a child. He ran away from the orphanage at age 6. He’s a born salesman who was doing well selling yearbooks to high schools and colleges when he got sick of idling two hours in traffic on the Washington Beltway, pulled a u-ey in the median, went home and told Patsy, “Honey, I’m done. We’re moving to Hilton Head.”

The business he bought on the island turned out to be bankrupt. He had to start over again. He created Perry Printing, teaching himself to print. When a printer didn’t show up for work, the kids were pressed into duty. He has done so much for charity on Hilton Head, the arts league made him a lifetime member, and a field at Crossings Park is named for him.

Perry represents the can-do spirit that created the Hilton Head Island we know today. It’s the spirit that gave us the Heritage. In Perry’s era, if anything got done, civic groups and individuals did it.

And they wanted to do it with flair — like daring to stand in a sea of buzzing humanity, dressed like a wax-museum figure, shouting from an aching diaphragm these little signs of honor to the golfers and guests we’re so lucky to have.

If you think you’re melting down, or imploding, stop by the ninth hole to see Charles Perry. Lord willing, he’ll be there, “shouting with joy to God,” as he has quoted the psalmist during the ups and downs of the past nine years.

Here’s what he told me:

“David, it’s better to be seen than viewed.”

This story was originally published April 16, 2016 at 4:36 PM with the headline "Lauderdale: RBC Heritage volunteer defies death to announce again at Harbour Town."