First Black Hilton Head town councilman and community leader Henry Driessen Jr. dies at 96
Henry Driessen Jr., 96, who served on the Town of Hilton Head’s first town council, died Monday morning, according to his obituary.
He represented Ward 1 for five terms including his inaugural term, which followed island incorporation in 1983. To win that seat, he finished fourth out of 17 in an at-large race. He was the only native islander on the ballot.
“There are several communities on Hilton Head Island,” he said at the time, according to The Island Packet’s archives. “The council is going to need someone who knows all the communities on the island.”
His family owned a Gulf Service Station, store and liquor store on U.S. 278 that closed in 2004. The Driessen family opened that Chaplin community business in 1926, 30 years before the first bridge linked Hilton Head to the mainland.
Driessen’s impact went further than business and government, and his commitment to the community was sealed when the family sold 11 acres of family land to the town. That land, located on Bradley Beach Road off of William Hilton Parkway, became Driessen Beach Park.
According to the town, Driessen served on community boards including the:
Palmetto Electric Cooperative
Children’s Center
Hilton Head Island Foundation
Hilton Head Medical District
Island NAACP chapter
Hilton Head Island Chamber of Commerce
Board of deacons at First African Baptist Church
Area board of the Bank of Beaufort
Hilton Head Hospital
Editor’s note: An in-depth article by columnist David Lauderdale will be published on islandpacket.com and in The Island Packet and Beaufort Gazette this weekend.
