It's easy to enjoy the fruits of human achievements while forgetting about the labor that brought them forth.
And the vision that inspired them to begin with.
But Charles Fraser's vision and labor will never be forgotten, as their fruit - Hilton Head Island, S.C. - will be enjoyed by families for decades to come.
As the founder of Sea Pines Plantation, Mr. Fraser is considered the father of modern-day Hilton Head - which is a remarkable distinction indeed, considering that Hilton Head is now a world-renowned, world-class resort island.
Mr. Fraser was not only visionary - able to see potentialities that others could not - but he was also a man ahead of his time.
Long before most others, Mr. Fraser was concerned that developments such as those at Hilton Head be constructed in harmony with the natural beauty surrounding it.
As developers go - even as developers of international repute go - Charles Fraser was a renaissance man.
"He was an unusual combination of artist and businessman, lawyer and dreamer," said Hale Barrett, an Augusta lawyer and friend of Mr. Fraser, who also was an Augusta lawyer in the 1950s.
Mr. Fraser, 73, who had lived in Brevard, N.C., in recent years, died at sea near the Turks and Caicos islands southeast of Miami in a Dec. 15 boating accident that apparently involved an exploding boat engine.
A favorite movie this time of year, It's a Wonderful Life, seeks to tell us that everyone would leave a large hole if he or she weren't born.
In that way, Charles Fraser was like most men, only more so.
He will be sorely missed. But the fruits of his life will sway for years in the trees of the Hilton Head he loved so much and meant so much to.
Overcast, 57 ° Humidity: 93%
Have a thought? Go to the 
