Tom Peeples, consensus-building former Hilton Head mayor and home builder, dies at 71
Tom Peeples, Hilton Head Island’s mayor for 15 years and council member for six years before that, died late Saturday from complications after spinal surgery earlier in the week. He was 71.
He is the only mayor in Hilton Head’s history to be reelected for more than one term, serving three terms between 1995 and 2010, when he stepped down. He also is the only native of the Lowcountry to become mayor since the island incorporated in 1983.
Peeples owned a home-building company, Tom Peeples Builder, on the island from 1978 until his retirement in 2021.
He and his wife, Mary Ann, lived in Hilton Head Plantation. They would have celebrated 52 years of marriage in June, said their son, Josh.
In 2011, Tom Peeples was awarded the Order of the Palmetto, the state of South Carolina’s highest civilian honor, and in 2012 he was grand marshal of the Hilton Head St. Patrick’s Day Parade.
He initially filed to run for the mayoral position again in 2018 but withdrew his name before the election.
“My time as mayor was the most humbling and defining experience of my life,” Tom Peeples said in a news release at the time. “I am forever grateful for the opportunity and for the friendships I forged then and enjoy today.”
‘Amazing father’
Tom Peeples was born and reared in Ridgeland but worked on Hilton Head with his father, who sold goods door to door starting in the 1940s, long before there was a bridge to the island.
His legacy will come not just from growing up on the island but helping to build it as well, said Josh Peeples. “He did a million things that nobody saw.”
Josh Peeples recalled his father coaching and being an advocate for youth sports facilities among his many other grassroots community contributions. Tom Peeples helped build facilities at Barker Field.
“He was an amazing father,” Josh said.
“He always wanted to volunteer. ... He was always about putting in the man hours. He was a much bigger believer in showing up and putting in the time whether people saw it or not.”
Paula Harper Bethea of Hilton Head worked with Tom Peeples on his campaigns. She described him as honest, trustworthy, hard-working and courageous.
“Everything that he did as mayor for our island, he always had in mind ... how would it affect the greater community,” she said.
“He was a wonderful friend. ... He made me better, but he didn’t just make me better, he made the island better.”
Hilton Head legacy
As mayor, Tom Peeples was known as a consensus builder.
Steve Riley, former longtime Hilton Head town manager, said Peeples spent a lot of time calling council members and talking to community leaders to ask what he could do to bring them on board.
“He was always shooting for that consensus plan,” Riley said. “He worked very hard in the background to get support among civic groups and to bring (town) staff along.”
Riley said many people may not realize how Peeples’ vision and understanding of construction shaped the town that exists today.
“He championed the idea of working with Palmetto Electric to bury all the power lines on the island,” Riley explained. This would prove to be a major benefit after Hurricane Matthew.
Among Peoples’ other successes:
A 5-year capital improvements plan was instituted, producing some $150 million worth of upgrades in drainage, secondary roads, public parks, public pathways and fire stations.
The town did a Ward One Master Plan, a Parks and Open Space Master Plan, and Peeples broke a long-running logjam to start sanitary sewer service to unserved island areas.
After first opposing it, Peeples cast his weight behind Tax Increment Financing Districts that led to more than $100 million in island projects, saying it was a sure way to keep money in the community rather than sending it all to Beaufort.
In 2010, just before he ended his last term as mayor, he talked to the Packet about what he saw as his greatest accomplishment.
“The town’s Land Acquisition Program,” he said. “The protection and development of Honey Horn as our museum is at the top of that list of benefits from that program.”
And his biggest disappointment? That was not having been able to fund a long-term home for a law enforcement center. “That was something we looked at doing for a decade,” he said.
When he retired from his construction business in 2021, land acquisition was still on his mind. He offered this advice for Hilton Head’s leaders, according an Island Packet column at the time: Don’t give away land the town bought to widen U.S. 278 on the north end.
“If we have to just give our land to the highway department for free, that’s not right,” he told the newspaper. “They should buy it, and we use the money to buy more land.”
In a statement released Monday, Hilton Head’s current Mayor Alan Perry lauded Tom Peeples’ vision for Hilton Head.
“I am truly saddened by the loss of a man who meant so much to the Town of Hilton Head Island,” Perry said. “Tom Peeples helped lay a foundation for the Island we know and love today. ... He did everything he could to not just build for that future but also protect the natural environment that makes Hilton Head Island so special.
“He was truly a local legend and will be missed dearly,” Perry said.
A celebration of life is planned from 4 to 7 p.m. Tuesday, April 30, at Honey Horn on Hilton Head.
