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During those visits, George honed his fishing and sailing in the waters of the Neuse just off of Oriental. For a time, he worked heading shrimp at the harbor. Mary also says he recalled spending time just watching men in the neighborhood building boats.

George Duffie as a young boy.

Back in South Carolina, George’s family moved around, as his father took appointments for a few years at a time at various churches. A family story from those days, shared the other day, suggests the even-keeled demeanor George was known for was something that evolved over time.

Mary says that on George’s first day at Chicorah High School in North Charleston, he checked in at the principal’s office and then, with a book and clipboard in hand, went to his first class. That’s where a student commented that he was “the preacher’s kid” whereupon the clipboard and book met the student’s face. As George’s lifelong friend, and fellow retired minister Bob Clyburn put it George “knocked him out cold.” Son Luther says that five minutes after leaving the principal’s office, his father was sent back there.

During the mid-1950’s while a student at Wofford College in South Carolina.

Several years later, the preacher’s kid was on track to become a preacher himself, after spending part of a summer working on a mission in Mexico. In 1955, George was a junior attending Wofford College when he went on a blind date to a football game. Mary Duffie, who was then a high school senior, says that first meeting is preserved in a photo — a photographer friend happened by “five minutes after we met for the first time at the bottom of a staircase.”

George & Mary (at right)… minutes after meeting in 1955.

At a winter dance, 1956.

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Posted Saturday June 25, 2011 by Melinda Penkava