Willcox, Buyck & Williams, P.A The Legacy of Tom Yawkey

The Yawkey Wildlife Center in Georgetown County

The Legacy of TOM YAWKEY

MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL OWNER AND OUTDOORSMAN

story by Mark W. Buyck, III

The Yawkey Wildlife Center surrounds the mouth of Winyah Bay in Georgetown County. The property is made up of North Island, South Island and Cat Island. Tom Yawkey bequeathed the greatest part of the property to the State of South Carolina upon his death in 1976. The property contains 31 square miles or 24,000 acres of marsh, wetlands, ocean beaches, longleaf pine uplands and maritime forest. Regular readers will recall that the Marquis de Lafayette first landed in America on North Island in 1777. Many believe that De Allyon’s 1526 expedition visited and may have attempted a settlement on these islands. The beach stretches from North Inlet just south of DeBordieu beach all the way to the North Santee delta. The Audubon Society estimates that over 1,500 different bird species live or visit here annually. It is a haven for migrating waterfowl as ducks have not been hunted in nearly 70 years. The miles of undeveloped beaches are ideal for Loggerhead turtle nesting. The Tom Yawkey Wildlife Center Alligator Project has been studying these once threatened animals since 1979, the longest continuous alligator study in the world. The Yawkey Wildlife Center is managed by 10 full time employees of the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources. The principal funding for the ongoing management and research efforts is through the Yawkey Foundation. While the islands are not open to the general public, SCDNR does offer tours throughout the year on a reservation only basis. Tom Yawkey’ s gift may be the most significant contribution to wildlife conservation in the state of South Carolina and arguably one of the most significant in the United States. Despite this, Tom Yawkey remains relatively unknown to most South Carolinians and his reputation unfairly tarnished in recent years. Baseball fans of a certain age know Yawkey as the longtime owner of the Boston Red Sox. He bought the team in 1933 and owned it continuously until his death in 1976. Following his death, his wife Jean Yawkey maintained a majority interest in the club until its sale in 2002 for a then record $700 million. One hundred percent of the Yawkey proceeds, $400 million, was placed into the Yawkey Foundation.

The Yawkey Foundation continues to honor the Yawkey’ s philanthropic ideals through assisting conservation work at the Yawkey Wildlife Center as well as support for scholarships and other charitable works in Georgetown County and the greater Boston area. The Foundation maintains a corpus of approximately $500 million and has awarded more than $530 million in charitable grants since its inception. Tom Yawkey was born in Detroit on February 21, 1903. His birth name was Thomas Yawkey Austin; however, his father died when he was six months old. His father figure growing up was his mother’s brother, Bill Yawkey, who purchased the majority interest of the Detroit Tigers baseball team, also in 1903. The Yawkey family had become wealthy mainly in the lumber and iron ore businesses in the upper Midwest. Tom’s mother died in 1918 during the Spanish flu epidemic. After her death, his uncle Bill adopted Tom legally changing his name to Tom Yawkey. Six months later, Bill Yawkey died in Augusta, Georgia, returning to Detroit following spring training in Macon. At the age of 16 Tom inherited approximately $20 million, the bulk of which was held in trust until he reached the age of 30. During his lifetime Bill Yawkey was a member of the South Island Gun Club where he frequently entertained his nephew. Bill began purchasing tracts throughout Cat Island and South Island and had acquired a majority of those two islands which Tom inherited at Bill's death. Tom continued to visit to hunt and fish the property and continued acquiring tracts and acreage as they became available.

Four days after reaching his 30th birthday, Tom Yawkey purchased the Boston Red Sox. The team had enjoyed little success since the infamous sale of Babe Ruth to the New York Yankees in 1920. Yawkey became the youngest and wealthiest owner of a major league team at that time. He began purchasing players himself and undertook extensive renovations of a dilapidated Fenway Park. For the next 43 years of his life, he would spend his summers mainly in Boston, late spring and early fall tending to his business interests in New York City and November through March at his home on Cat Island. Tom and Jean Yawkey’ s philanthropic legacy will be discussed in the next installment.

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