The Harbour Town Course is a Winner “THE TOURNAMENT ITSELF, I don’t remember much about,” said Jack Nicklaus of his 1975 win at the Sea Pines Heritage Classic. Perhaps he can be forgiven that memory lapse, given his 70 career wins, including 18 professional major championship victories. He may not remember winning the tournament, but no other player has created a greater legacy at Harbour Town, located in Sea Pines Resort on Hilton Head Island. The first design project Nicklaus took on, Harbour Town counts as one of his trophies. Though he has built hundreds of golf courses worldwide, the Harbour Town course is a career highlight as important as his first professional victory in 1962. Ranked as the number one course in South Carolina by Golf Magazine, this is the course to play at Hilton Head. Created by Jack Nicklaus and Pete Dye, the Harbour Town links took their inspiration from old courses in Scotland. The par-71 course is considered short by today’s standards but presents a challenge to even the most experienced golfers. Now known as one of America’s most prominent player-architects, the “Golden Bear” says, “That golf course started me on something that has been a lifetime love, and it’s something that I am very proud to have been involved in. I wish through the years I could have played it more, but there are just too many tournaments. “That course has contributed to a second vocation and second avocation that has been very rewarding.” Thirty-eight years later, Harbour Town continues to be an important stop on the PGA Tour, attracting internationally ranked players. SeaPines50thAnniversary.com | SeaPinesHomesAndVillas.com 33 REALIZING THAT SHE HAD an exceptionally bright 2-year-old daughter on her hands, Mary Wyman Stone Fraser, mostly out of sheer frustration, founded The Sea Pines Montessori School in 1968. “One day she (Wyman) came up to me and said ‘Mama, I want to go to Savannah to the Oglethorpe Mall,’” Fraser said. “Savannah and Oglethorpe are pretty difficult words for a 2-year-old child.” Fraser said that she herself was somewhat limited as to what to do to enhance Wyman’s learning, let alone help her flourish in her development. And at the time, there were no early childhood learning facilities on Hilton Head Island. “Back in those days, the U.S. government thought (structured) learning shouldn’t occur before the first grade,” she said. Fraser set about on a mission: She devoured reading material and asked others about what was available. She studied various teaching methods and, in doing so, stumbled upon the Montessori method. “I went to a Montessori conference and thought everyone there was weird, but I knew the philosophy was correct,” she recalled. The entire process, from the time she started to the first day of school, took about six months. “I had to do something fast. My child and I were climbing the walls,” she said. Sally Humphrey Cook of Shawnee Mission, Kansas, was the first directress of the class of 33 children. Classes were held in the Tree House Restaurant Complex, now a convenience store on South Forest Beach. During the eight years on the beach, the school grew and prepared for its future. In 1974, a parents’ association, Mothers of Montessori Students (MOMS), was formed as a supportive arm of the school, assisting in the day-to-day financial operation of the school when the Sea Pines Company withdrew its subsidy. At that time, Fraser appointed a chairman of the board, and Cook became headmistress. A board of five members was formed to develop bylaws based on the needs of the school. Its first order of business was to obtain a site and put into motion a building program that would take care of the projected needs of the community. The plan for the new building, drawn up by architect John Bulken, included three classrooms, offices and storage space. The board, with the support of the parents’ association, obtained a loan. Pledges of financial support from each parent were accepted as collateral. The enrollment was 84 children from 70 families. Anticipating the need for additional staffing for the growing school, Cook invited Elizabeth Caspari, who studied with Maria Montessori in India, to offer a teacher training course, the first such course taught in South Carolina. One of the teachers who took the course and received her Montessori teaching diploma in 1976 was current headmistress of the school Maxine Swingle, who started with the school in 1973 as a parent volunteer. Swingle became the headmistress in 1982, when Cook retired. In the fall of 1977, the school moved into its new three-classroom building at its present location on Fox Grape Road. Over the next two decades, enrollment grew, necessitating several expansions and renovations. Most recently, the school completed a $1.9 million, 11,000-squarefoot expansion/renovation in 2000. Several new rooms were added to enhance the facility. An auditorium/ multi-purpose room was built for physical education, recreation, drama programs, meetings and conferences. A music room, a library and the Rainbow Room were added to the main facility, while the building also got a new front entrance. Sea Pines Montessori was selected by the Ford Foundation as one of the “10 most outstanding pre-schools in the nation,” and is a model for many schools. It is common for parents to move to Hilton Head so their children may attend. Sea Pines, the first Montessori school in South Carolina, today provides educational excellence to nearly 300 children from throughout the Lowcountry community. The Sea Pines Montessori School Mary Wyman Stone Fraser (foreground) was instrumental in establishing the first Montessori school in the area. 32 SeaPines50thAnniversary.com | SeaPinesHomesAndVillas.com
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