Robert C. Thigpen

Robby was born in Sumter, South Carolina, was raised in Florence and graduated from South Florence High School. He has enjoyed hunting, fishing and playing in Big Pee Dee, Little Pee Dee, Lynches River, and the Santee and in the swamps of the coastal plains and the Low Country of the Carolinas. He been a B.A.S.E jumper, had his own exhibition skydiving team. He has skydived and B.A.S.E jumped in the Carolinas, Georgia, Florida and West Virginia. He has rock climbed in most of these United States and on 3 continents. His favorite places to climb are on the Iron Messiah in Zion National Park, Utah, anything on Petit Grepon in Rocky Mountain National Park, Colorado and Linville Gorge, Table Rock area of North Carolina. He is a graduate of Appalachian State University.

Clean drinking water has always been a priority for Robby. In the mid nineties he lived in Kenya and experimented with different drill head designs for hand augers that were being used for pump stations for clean water wells in the desert of West Pokot, Kenya. Before that time the people in the area would dig into the dried Charangani River for their water. As the dry season continued, they would dig deeper and deeper into the sand to the water table below. The Pokot people would pile briars and thorn bushes around these water holes to keep out the wild animals, however, they would let their own livestock in to drink the water. While drinking the livestock did what all animals do, the water was much polluted from these animal wastes, but there was no other water source and the Pokot drank this water too. However, today in many areas of this arid land this does not have to happen as there are many new water wells in the area.

His most recent research has been in waters of Belize living and working with lobster fishermen of the Northern Fishermen's Cooperative Society LTD and studying the lobster fishery on the island of Caye Caulker. He hopes that his research there will bring about ways to protect this valuable fishery while allowing it to grow economically. Today once again, he is fighting to bring clean water to people, but this time it is to the drought stricken areas of his own country. When asked about why he participating in this project, he responds proudly, I'm doing it for Dixie. We are proud to have Robby as a partner in these important stewardship tasks that we all have ahead of us.