Carl Edward Gebhardt

Carl E. Gebhardt, 89 passed away March 11, 2023.  He was born June 8, 1933 in Paterson, New Jersey, to Theresa and Edward Gebhardt.

He graduated from Rutgers University and also attended the National University of Mexico.  After graduation he received a commission as an officer in the United States Navy and served four years as a mine warfare specialist aboard the Ostrich, a Charleston-based minesweeper.  He also served as an instructor to senior foreign naval officers in Yorktown, Virginia and Charleston, South Carolina.  He met the woman who was to become his wife in Charleston in 1957.  He and Nancy were married the following year in Columbia, South Carolina.

In 1961 he moved with his wife and children Leslie and Gregory to Hilton Head Island as vice president of the Atlantis Development Company that built, owned and operated the Adventure Inn, the first hotel on Hilton Head Island.  It was here that Glenn joined the family.  In that period of early development on the island, Carl was appointed by the Governor to the Beaufort County Development Commission, he was the director of public relations for the Coastal Empire Mental Health Association, and he was active in a variety of other civic associations including as President of the Hilton Head Island Chamber of Commerce.  He and his family departed Hilton Head in 1966 when he embarked on a new career with the Central Intelligence Agency.

Over the ensuing twenty-six years he served in a variety of positions in Washington, D.C. and abroad including Mexico City, where he welcomed the last of his children, Karen.  He also traveled to Warsaw, Poland, Bangkok, Thailand, Jakarta, Indonesia and finally Moscow, USSR.  He retired in 1992 as a member of the Senior Intelligence Service and returned to Hilton Head Island, a place that had always held onto his heart.  He became a founding member of the Creative Retirement Center, the forerunner of Lifelong Learning of Hilton Head Island.  He also volunteered at Literacy Volunteers of the Lowcountry and as an interpreter for Volunteers in Medicine.

Carl is pre-deceased by his daughter Leslie and his wife of 63 years, Nancy.  He is survived by his sons Gregory and Glenn and their wives Rhina and Bungon, respectively; and daughter Karen; five grandchildren, Austin, Andrea, Diego, Samantha and Michael as well as by his sister, Kathy of Asheville, North Carolina.

In lieu of flowers, the family hopes that he will be remembered fondly.  In accordance with both Carl and Nancy’s wishes, the family will not hold a formal funeral service and will instead gather on Hilton Head Island to hold a celebration of life in the place they both held so dear.