Hilton Head Monthly Voice Voice of the Lowcountry 
As a boy, Warner Peacock spent weekends driving around with his car salesman grandfather “prospecting” for customers. As a teenager, Peacock helped at his father’s GMAC dealership. With ties that deep, he never really stood a chance at doing anything else for very long.
“I keep getting drawn back into it,” Peacock said. “It’s a hard business, but I think I’m pretty good at it.”
Tennis legend Stan Smith relaxes on a couch in his spacious, earth-toned home in Spanish Wells that opens onto Broad Creek, looking as if could still trade serves and volleys with the best of them.
Lean and long-limbed, with powerful hands and a slightly roguish mustache that helped make him instantly recognizable to a legion of fans in the 1970s and beyond, the one-time greatest player in the world speaks in polite and measured tones as he reflects on a life in tennis and his status as one of Hilton Head’s most highly regarded residents.
Maurer’s credentials are impressive. She holds a bachelor of fine arts degree in dance and a bachelor of arts degree in psychology from the University of Colorado, with an additional advanced fine arts teaching certification from the state of South Carolina.
In 2006, Maurer started the dance department at Hilton Head Island Elementary School for the Creative Arts. Two years later, she was named one of South Carolina Arts Commission’s top 40 Arts educators.
Hilton Head isn’t just fun for humans. Loggerhead turtles find this homey little island quite comfortable as well. So comfortable, in fact, that they’ve been coming around these parts for years and years to lay their eggs and start new generations. And one resident enthusiast, Nan Stafford, grew up loving these sea creatures so much that she wanted to ensure they stuck around for years to come.
Take a look around you. If you are on Hilton Head reading this, just glance to your left and right. Mark Baker probably designed that.
See that development over there? Mark Baker probably did that too. Oh, you live in Hampton Lake? Mark Baker. Your daughter plays soccer at Florida State University’s intramural fields? Mark Baker. You get drinks on the weekend at any of the Marriots here on island? Mark Baker. He is one of the most sought-after land developers in the southeast. And South America. And the Caribbean. And, boy, is he good at it.
When local bluegrass band Lowcountry Boil was created, it was a warm-up session before rock band Daly Planet concerts. About 15 years later, Daly Planet no longer exists, but Lowcountry Boil has survived as one of the longest-running bands in the area.
Most people are lucky enough to achieve success in one career their whole lives. John Jacobs is currently on his fifth.
Starting out as a teacher, becoming an administrator, segueing into a twenty-six year career with National Starch and Chemical, utilizing those skills to found a distribution and packaging logistics company, and now settling into small-business ownership quite nicely with his wife, Ramona Fantini, his success in seemingly everything that he does is a direct reflection of his outlook on life.
Mrs. Ida Martin, the founder of Bluffton Self Help Inc., in Bluffton was born in the rural town of Walterboro, in the mid 1920s. Her destiny: to grow up to become a well-recognized icon in the Lowcountry. She did it one task at a time and with the spit and fire of a woman on a mission. Her mission: to assist people lacking basic needs such as food, clothing and emergency financial assistance.
In the darkest times of your life, when you are down without any visible signs of ever getting back up, Dr. Virginia Herrmann is the buoy to which you can cling. She’s no miracle worker. No one is. But she is pretty close.
“When you are dealing with breast problems, it becomes so overwhelming for the patient. You are invited into a part of their life that is very intimate. They are very vulnerable, it’s the worst time in their life for the moment, and so if you can be there with them and help them through that journey, it’s really a privilege. You’re sharing something with them that they don’t share with everybody. It’s a privilege to help see them through that,” she said. And she does.
There’s a building somewhere, mid-island. We probably shouldn’t tell you where exactly.
From the outside, its stucco interior and towering garage door betray nothing other than an architectural kinship with the all the other commercial and light industrial structures huddled around it.
