Lucas M. Dargan

Lucas McIntosh Dargan, 99, husband of the late Frances Edwards Dargan, died at his residence on Wednesday, December 14, 2016. Born in Darlington County on July 18, 1917, he was the son of the late Rosa Evans McIntosh Dargan and William Edwin Dargan. He graduated from St. John's High School, Class of 1934, and attended North Carolina State University for two years, then transferred to Utah State University where he earned his Bachelor's Degree in Wildlife Management in 1938. After graduation Mr. Dargan was employed by the Colorado Game and Fish Department where he conducted population and habitat studies of sage grouse, beaver, and mule deer, and later by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service at Pautuxent National Wildlife Research Refuge in Laurel, Maryland, where he established a forestry management program for wildlife. In 1942 he was commissioned a naval officer and served aboard the USS Livermore with the Atlantic Fleet. At the conclusion of World War II he returned to Darlington and was employed as a forester for the Ingram Dargan Lumber Company until 1950 when he became a consulting forester serving clients throughout the Pee Dee and Low Country until his retirement in 1997. He once estimated that he had planted more than one million trees during his career. Mr. Dargan was active in numerous natural resources organizations, including the SC Farm Bureau where he served as Chairman of the Forestry and Natural Resources Committee, and as Chairman of the Forestry Advisory Committee of the American Farm Bureau Federation. He also served as a Commissioner of the SC Water Resources Commission, and as a member of the SC Governor's Advisory Council on Natural Resources, a board member of the SC Forestry Association, and most recently as a board member of the Black Creek Land Trust. He was one of three Commissioners appointed by the U.S. District Court to establish the value of the 14,000 acre Bidler Forest, now known as the Congaree National Park, which he described at the time as "the finest original-growth bottomland hardwood forest left in the South." Throughout his professional career he published numerous articles on forestry related topics, and is often quoted for his exceptional knowledge of forestry and natural resource matters. Mr. Dargan was a lifelong communicant of St. Matthews Episcopal Church and as its troop Scoutmaster he was a recipient of the Silver Beaver Award. He was also active in local, regional and state historical societies and was well known for his knowledge and recall of genealogical information. He was a member - emeritus of the St. Andrews Society of Columbia, and was instrumental in re-chartering the St. David's Society in the Pee Dee in 1977, which was originally established in Society Hill, SC, in 1777, to provide a free school and library for its citizens, serving as the first president of the re-established organization. He was also a member of the Washington Biologists Field Club for over 70 years. In May, 2011, he was honored by the SC Wildlife Federation at its 80th anniversary celebration as one of 15 Leaders in Conservation throughout the state. In 1948 he married his childhood friend and classmate Frances Edwards Culbertson at Wrenfield Farm near Mechanicsville, and they celebrated their 63rd wedding anniversary in October, 2011. He was also predeceased by his brother William Edwin Dargan and sister-in-law Annie McCullough Edwards Dargan; his sister Mary Hart Dargan McIver and brother-in-law Evander Roderick McIver, and his sister Rosa Evans Dargan who died in infancy. He was the last survivor of his 46 first cousins. He is survived by their four daughters Jacquelyn Hackett Culbertson Adams and her husband Patton of Columbia; Amanda Dargan Zeitlin and her husband Steven of Hastings-on-Hudson, NY; Sarah Edwards Dargan of Darlington; and Rosa McIntosh Dargan Powers and her husband Alan of Vilas, NC; nine grandchildren: Thomas Patton Adams and his wife Savorn of Fairfax, VA; John Hackett Culbertson Adams and Lucas Dargan Adams both of Columbia; Benjamin Harold Zeitlin, Eliza Dargan Zeitlin and Sarah Elizabeth Cornejo all of New Orleans, LA; Teresa Lucia Cornejo of Charlotte, NC; Dargan Graham Powers and Aidan Edwards Powers, both of Vilas, NC. Four great-grandchildren: Thomas Patton Adams VII, Richard Anthony Adams, John Hackett Culbertson Adams, Jr. and Nathan Jenkins Adams, as well as a large and loving extended family. Graveside services will be held on Tuesday, December 20, 2016, at 11:00 AM in Grove Hill Cemetery. Family and friends are invited to call at the residence, Longleaf Farm, 1124 South Charleston Road, Darlington, following the service. Belk Funeral Home of Darlington is assisting the family.