Harold McDonald Core

Harold McDonald Core August 13, 1936 – August 19, 2026 Harold McDonald Core, the youngest of Oscar and Kathleen Core's seven children, died August 19, 2026, six days after his 90th birthday. His was a gentle death befitting his gentle spirit. Harold was raised in Dunn, North Carolina, the baby of a large and lively family, and the stories of those early years were a source of endless delight to his daughters. One favorite involves his brother Billy, who once declared it was time to teach the chickens to fly. The method: tie a handkerchief to a chicken and toss it from the hayloft. You can imagine how that turned out. Then there was the story Harold swore was true — that he fell out of the family car while it was moving and had to have a metal plate put in his head. His siblings Billy and Doris confirmed the falling-out-of-the-car part readily enough; it was the metal plate they couldn't quite get behind. Without question, Harold grew up surrounded by love and hijinks both, and it showed in the way he and his wife, Mary Lou, raised their two daughters, Sharon and Lisa. A Love Story, Six Decades Long Harold and Mary Lou met when he was in the 9th grade and she was in the 8th, introduced by Harold's niece and Mary Lou’s best friend, Mary Ann. From that introduction grew a partnership that would span 64 years and anchor the family that Harold loved fiercely. Mary Lou was, simply put, the heart of his heart. In the mornings after his retirement, he would rise early just to have breakfast with her before she left for work. And every single morning, as she gathered her things to leave, Harold would look up with an expression of theatrical surprise and say, "Where are you going?? Oh — right. You have to go to work…I don’t." Mary Lou retired not long after. A Navy Man Harold enlisted in the United States Navy at 17 years old. Over the next 21 years, he rose to the rank of Chief Petty Officer, working in the engine room aboard ships. His service was not without cost: during an engine room fire, he suffered a compound fracture of his left ankle — an injury that took him off ships and into shore patrol duty for the remainder of his career. The Navy gave him something, too: the world, and an expanded worldview. Harold had been nearly everywhere. It was not uncommon to be watching television with Harold and hear him say, matter-of-factly, as a foreign city flickered across the screen: "I've been there.” Sharon and Lisa made it a personal mission to go somewhere he hadn't. It wasn't until Sharon traveled to India in 1986 that they finally succeeded. For Lisa, the goal was achieved when she visited China in 2013. Home, and What Came After After his Navy retirement, Harold didn't slow down — he shifted gears. He enrolled at junior college, where he discovered he could apply the same paper to three different classes and receive an A each time. His daughters called this cheating. Harold cheerfully (and shamelessly) disagreed. He also took over the family cooking duties, and made it a point to be home when his daughters arrived from school. After long stretches away on Navy cruises, coming home to find him there was a huge joy to them. Harold was a devoted member of Southside Estates Presbyterian Church in Jacksonville, where he was very active and eventually ordained as an elder. It was there that his pastor once gave him a small stone — a gesture that stayed with him. From that point on, Harold picked up a rock everywhere he went, carrying home a piece of places he'd been. His collection grew over decades. He went on to work for General Electric, a job that moved the family from Jacksonville, Florida, to Summerville, South Carolina, where he continued working on ships. After a layoff from GE, he took a night shift position with Dayco. When that ended, he was required to interview for other jobs as a condition of receiving unemployment benefits. One company offered him the position on the spot – Harold was not amused and declined the role. Until his death, he received $9.50 per month in pension from Dayco, a fact that he and Mary Lou found absolutely hilarious. Upon moving to Summerville, the Core family joined Dorchester Presbyterian Church where he was actively involved and encouraged his daughters’ participation in the youth group and other activities. The Man in the Kitchen Harold was always a great cook, which suited Mary Lou perfectly, as she did not share his enthusiasm. His gifts in the kitchen were legendary in the family. Recipes, to Harold, were suggestions — starting points that could always be improved upon. His operating philosophy: needs more garlic. Many people benefited from Harold's culinary skills. He once gave a chef a lesson in how to make red-eyed gravy and grits. He then followed up by mailing him a bag of “real” grits. But of all his culinary accomplishments, none was more celebrated than his coconut cake. Hand-grated coconut. An icing that required four hours of stirring — during which time Harold read, and stirred, and read some more. That cake graced many a Thanksgiving table and served as the groom's cake at more than one wedding, including Sharon’s and Nick's. The recipe has been passed along, and some family members are valiantly carrying the tradition forward. Even so, it will always simply be Harold's coconut cake. And there was the matter of the chicken bones — Harold could, and did, gnaw a drumstick clean through, cracking the bone and extracting every bit of marrow with great relish and considerable volume. Lisa's high school friend Jeff, who dined at the Core house so frequently that Harold had taken to calling him "the tax deduction," eventually curtailed his visits considerably after witnessing this practice. Like a Good Neighbor – Harold is There Harold never met a stranger. He could talk to anyone, and he did — with genuine interest, making people feel that what they had to say mattered, because to him, it did. Harold always made a point to introduce himself to new families in the neighborhood and offer his help. When a power outage struck, he spent an entire afternoon and early evening moving his personal generator from house to house so neighbors could plug in their appliances. For many years, he volunteered at a school in Dorchester County, South Carolina, working with students learning English. Both the students and the teachers adored him. They would often break into applause when he entered the room. He was invited to join the Silver Haired Legislature, a group that advocated for senior issues and public policy in South Carolina. He was a lifelong liberal who read his Doonesbury faithfully and collected every book in the series. He was a rebel at heart — Mary Lou has noted that in high school, Harold was something of a "hood," which is to say: a bit of a bad boy. He had an excellent role model of this in his favorite musical artist, Johnny Cash. Harold was a Navy man with a Johnny Cash soul. His Passions Harold's joys were numerous and particular. He was a devoted fan of University of North Carolina Tar Heels Basketball— one of his most treasured Christmas gifts was the year Mary Lou got them tickets to a game in the Dean Dome. He was an equally devoted Miami Dolphins fan and made a point of reminding anyone within earshot that the 1972 Dolphins remain the only team in NFL history to complete a perfect season straight through to a Super Bowl victory. He loved tennis and volunteered as a driver at the Family Circle Cup in Charleston, where he became fast friends with the mother of player Jelena Janković. Jelena, for her part, jokingly complained to Harold that her mother was being mean to her and asked if he would adopt her. He agreed — and the following year, presented her with “official” adoption papers. Jelena remains in touch to this day. He loved fishing, even when the fish didn't cooperate, which was often. He long envied our Uncle Pal, who seemed capable of catching fish anywhere, under any conditions. Harold suspected the fish might simply jump into Uncle Pal's boat of their own accord. He loved his garden — first in Jacksonville, where he somehow coaxed vegetables from nearly pure sand, and later on the acreage in Colleton County where he grew things on a grander scale. He loved his model trains, laid out on a large sheet of plywood complete with houses, stations, and bridges. He loved his model car collection, his stamps, his coins — the latter of which he regularly set aside to give to Sharon and Lisa. He loved Calvin and Hobbes and had all the books. He loved cutting coupons from the Sunday paper and reporting to his daughters exactly how much money he'd saved. He loved Thanksgiving turkey skin with a fierce and possessive devotion, which led to annual mock-battles with his daughters over who got which piece and how much of it. He was very quick with a (dad) joke — most of them the kind that made Mary Lou and Sharon groan and Lisa laugh. He loved kids, and they loved him back, which is precisely why his Celebration of Life will be held on Halloween: Harold's favorite day for handing out candy, admiring costumes, and chatting with every child who came to the door. Survived By/Predeceased By Harold is survived by his beloved wife of 64 years, Mary Lou; his daughter Sharon Core and her husband Nick Kuhn; his daughter Lisa Graham and her husband Larry; and his grandson Kenny Graham and his wife Brittany, and numerous family members and friends whom he loved. He is predeceased by his parents, Oscar Franklin Core and Kathleen Godwin Core; grandson John Wright Roman Graham; his siblings Garland Core, Howard Core, Charles Core, Bernice Craig, Doris Darrow, and Billy Core; his nephews Frank Craig and Robert (Bobby) Lambert; and his niece, Alice Nelson. In His Memory Harold’s Celebration of Life will be held on October 31, 2026 (All Saints’ Eve), at 11:00 a.m. at Dorchester Presbyterian Church, Summerville, South Carolina. Gifts in lieu of flowers may be made to Shriners Hospital for Children and to Dorchester Presbyterian Church, 10290 Dorchester Rd, Summerville, SC 29485.

Harold McDonald Core

August 13, 1936 - August 19, 2026