The Lubkin men cultivated an appreciation for the Lowcountry’s fertile soil and the abundance of seafood in the waters beyond. Spanky Lubkin, as his friends called him, was born on the Old Point in 1937, delivered at home by Dr. Ryan. He had his first memory at 3 years of age. His family was renting a house in Burton on Albergotti Creek. His father was an avid fisherman and wanted to take his son trout fishing. Without a seat appropriate for the child’s size, his dad configured a cushion on an orange crate and tied it down with rope.

“I just remember my poor mom being terrified, but dad wanted to take me fishing,” he laughs. In 1940, his dad working for Blue Channel Corporation at the time, purchased a home on Prince Street behind what is now Beaufort Elementary. His second memory was during the hurricane that year before they were named. Again, only three years old, he walked outside during the eye of the storm with his dad and grandfather, who only lived 75 yards behind them. They saw the chimney blown off of the house and a mountain of limbs in the yard. “I do remember it being a scary storm,” he recalls.

His father took the family to Bel Haven, NC where he worked as a plant manager for Blue Channel, but by 1945, they were back in Beaufort at the home on Prince Street. His father then started Coastal Seafood in 1950 on Saint Helena Island. The business was built primarily on shucking oysters, picking crab meat, and manufacturing and packaging the two delicacies. In less than a decade, it would become the third largest employer in Beaufort, behind Parris Island and Blue Channel. Lubkin grew up in Beaufort when it was a small, familiar town, not at all a tourist town.

“People didn’t come here before the invention of air conditioning. I remember my mom coming in my room in the middle of the night just to change my sheets. My dad cracked a window by my bed and wedged in an attic fan. I grew up in Beaufort even when rich people were poor. Everyone had chickens…even cows in their backyards,” he laughs. Lubkin helped his dad build his first boat at age 6. As he aged into his childhood, Lubkin fished with his dad, learning to catch drum in Port Royal Sound and Broad River and trout and bass in the creeks.

“I grew up in the river. I loved fishing, gigging, sailing, camping out…all of it,” Lubkin beams as he recalled his youth.

Lubkin left Beaufort High School in 1955 after 10th grade to attend prep school at Georgia Military Academy, which is now Woodward Academy in Atlanta. He had the ambition of becoming a submarine commander at the US Naval Academy in Annapolis. But during his senior year, he had a change of heart.

“I was in an elevator in downtown Atlanta, and it was packed with people. I was so claustrophobic! I realized then I didn’t want to pursue a career with submarines,” he smiles.

Then, his love for Clemson University began. He enrolled, graduated in four years and, in 1959, went into the family business.

Lubkin was one of the first people on the East Coast to use crab traps. Most crews utilized trotlines, which needed two men to pull and harvest. These crew members worked six day weeks, in run boats with no outboard motors picking up crabs on a route determined by tide. They were only able to harvest the crabs at low tide with no water on the banks. The crabs were then hauled in 55 gallon drum barrels, dead or alive.

Lubkin knew that crabs could only survive with water in their lungs. Though trotlines were highly functional, the method of harvesting live crabs was not. If a crab could not right itself, it would die upside down. Lubkin partnered with many of these crew members who knew a lot about crabs, their habitats and when to seasonally collect. They soon doubled their catch with crab traps, harvesting 100% live crabs. They managed 40-50 boats, yielding 10-15,000 lbs. of crabmeat each week.

Coastal Seafood was sending crabmeat to fresh markets in Baltimore, Philadelphia, New York and more by rail. The business grew exponentially in 40 years, employing over 120 people at its peak. When Lubkin understood the crab industry was internationally changing, he sold the manufacturing business in 1990 and began a seafood brokerage company in its place, Coastal Pride Company, Inc. The company is an international operation, run by his three children, Tracy, Walter and John, and its primary labels are Lubkin’s Coastal Pride and Lubkin’s First Choice. They sell over 2 million pounds of pasteurized and fresh crabmeat each year.

Lubkin began to realize the value in real estate, and, unlike his brokerage company, could sell commercial property on his own time. He became successful with Carteret Development Company and later developed Ashdale on Lady’s Island. He bought and sold Morgan Island and then lucratively sold lots on Gibbs and Cat Islands.

Lubkin loves a new idea. In addition to his prosperous business and real estate careers, he also owns three patents relating to crab, seafood and chicken processing, always utilizing his ever inquisitive mind.

Walter Lubkin, Jr. is not only congenial, he is infectious with laughter and light. And that doesn’t come without an exceptional partner. His bride of 60 years, Janet Lubkin, is his anchor in life. And together they made a remarkable family just as giving as they.

“I am very blessed for my wife, my family and my love of Jesus Christ. I am particularly proud that my children can work together in peace,” grins Lubkin with delight.

That accomplishment only comes with encouraging words by parents who live their lives with purpose, grace and love. And Janet and Walter Lubkin, Jr. have done just that.