Former state lawmaker Charles M. "Mac" Gibson, an
influential figure who worked to consolidate Charleston County's fractured
school district in the 1960s, died early Thursday. He was 73.
A family member said the cause of death was pneumonia but that he also
suffered from cancer and related complications.
Gibson's political career included five years in the state House of
Representatives and one year in the state Senate. As a legislator, he worked to
cut down on the sewage that was being dumped into Charleston Harbor, an effort
that would help create the treatment plant on Plum Island.
In 1967, Gibson became a leading supporter in the effort to bring all eight
of Charleston County's then-independent school districts under one governing
board.
At the time, the districts acted independently and each survived on its own
local tax base. Gibson was among several who said the poorer rural, agrarian
districts would become doomed financially if they didn't receive the benefits of
a countywide tax base.
"They couldn't even buy erasers for the blackboards," said former lawmaker
Tommy Hartnett, who supported Gibson.
Friends remember the consolidation fight as one of the most fractious in
Charleston County politics with many of the wealthier districts opposing being
forced to share resources.
"It became the most contentious legislative issue of that year," said friend
and fellow lawmaker Joseph H. McGee. After months of debate, the bill passed and
became law.
"But the contest was acrimonious and at times mean-spirited," McGee recalled.
"And in the end, it felled my friend Mac Gibson, both physically and
emotionally."
Gibson resigned his Senate seat that year and, in time, also gave up his
local law practice. He moved to Alaska, where he was professionally successful.
He served as deputy city manager and attorney for Fairbanks, and as a court
administrator in the Alaskan court system. He returned to South Carolina in
2002, living in Walterboro.
Gibson was born Aug. 16, 1932, a son of Charles Ellis Gibson and Helen
Woodcock Gibson. He graduated from the University of Virginia, and the
University of South Carolina School of Law. He served in the U.S. Army from
1954-56.
Gibson is survived by six children, Elizabeth Gibson Quackenbush, C. Mac
Gibson Jr., Anne Gibson Hutto, Thomas E. Gibson, James M. Gibson and Matthew S.
Gibson, and 12 grandchildren.
Funeral arrangements will be announced by James A. McAlister Funeral Home.
