While viewing an older Ted Talk on the pitfalls of the single narrative, thoughts of a resident from Myrtle Beach crossed my mind. This individual prefers to keep his story private. Yet, I find it compelling. He embodies the spirit of a visionary akin to Ben Franklin or Thomas Edison. His name holds significance within the local community.
Born in 1961, David Hucks is a 12th generation descendant of the area we now call Myrtle Beach, S.C. He attended Coastal Carolina University and like most of his family, has never left the area.
During the early 1980s, while he was a college student, he developed strong feelings for a girl from the area whom he intended to wed. He envisioned bringing up a new generation of children enjoying the South Carolina waves and embracing the full essence of Southern living.
After a six year courtship, however, the couple discovered her Mormon religion was a major hurdle that would never be reconciled with the faith he had given his life to.
This relational break was an impactful moment. It sent David Hucks on a 20-year journey in search of what he calls intimacy and partnership in a forever relationship. As so much of today’s culture is disposable, he hoped for something permanent.
That day came some almost 20 years later when he married Marleny, a true partner in all that is life. “I won the wife lottery!,” David Hucks consistently says. Marleny had lived her single years well, graduating UNC-Chapel Hill and going into ministry. Though she was born only one state away, Marleny would travel or live in 34 different countries before moving back to the south where they would meet. From the beginning, they prayed about the option of foster care adoption.
Just as the adoption process was taking root, however, a local businessman conspired to create a vicious lie. This businessman, being highly connected, managed to get him falsely arrested long enough for there to be a news story, which was clearly the point. Though this drama would later prove to be an embarrassment for the police, the solicitor’s office, and even local news outlets that covered the story as fact, it did impact their lives.
It would take several years to get through the legal cleanup. This included having the charges dropped, having the accuser pay damages, and expunging his record. However, in the modern world of technology, it would take even longer to erase the false narrative that had been linked to the internet.
Meanwhile, his business took the front line hits with clients cancelling contracts as competitors and the local Chamber of Commerce began to pile on, pointing people to the Google links of the untrue story in a whisper campaign.
The adoption process was stopped cold in its tracks. The agency advised that matters should be put on hold until the accusations could reach trial. Despite pleading with Horry County Court for a speedy trial, a trial date would not be set for three years. The single story narrative about what David Hucks was had been deceitfully written. Dreams of adoption were put on hold.
What was birthed from this revelation was his agreeing to join other leaders in the Myrtle Beach community to help launch the Myrtle Beach Black Chamber of Commerce. Through the Myrtle Beach Black Chamber of Commerce, God has opened the door for him to become a father to a fatherless generation and a friend to the cause of community.
David Hucks: A Multifaceted Local
It was in 2013, as David Hucks watched his nephews and nieces grow into adulthood, that he realized the best way he could father would be to help those millennials find hope in today’s world. As his research on millennials began, census data revealed that this generation was 51% minority, and most of these young adults had never truly had a guiding father in their home.
Today, he works part-time as a journalist here at MyrtleBeachSC.com.
“God isn’t done with me yet,” David Hucks recently said to me.
I have never known anyone with a heart like his nor a willingness to persevere through hard times so that God’s love can actually be given time to work its way through.
God bless David Hucks. AND God bless the kind of Myrtle Beach community God is working through him and others to create.
