In Tribute to Frederica “Freddie” Carson’s Retirement

At six years old, Frederica “Freddie” Carson knew she was an artist.

“I was thrilled when I found out that art was something you could do every day,” she once recalled, a moment that would shape not only her own life, but the lives of generations of students to come. That spark, first ignited in an elementary school art class, became a lifelong flame of creativity, curiosity, and compassion that has illuminated Hilton Head Preparatory School for nearly six decades.

Freddie’s journey with our school began at its very beginning. In 1965, when Sea Pines Academy opened its doors with just 28 students and four teachers, Freddie was there.  She was one of the pioneers who helped lay the foundation of what would become Hilton Head Preparatory School. After earning her degree in Art Education from Auburn University, she joined the faculty and began a career defined not simply by longevity, but by profound impact.

Over the years, Freddie’s path intertwined beautifully with her life beyond the classroom. She married William “Bill” Carson in 1966, raised her daughters Beth and Aimee, and remained deeply connected to the school community even during seasons away from full-time teaching, as a tutor, a substitute, and an ever-present mentor. Though the family briefly moved away, the pull of the Lowcountry, and of Prep, proved irresistible. In 1984, Freddie returned as Lower School Art Instructor, where she was soon joined by fellow art educator Kathryn Ramseur. Their partnership, often described as “ordained,” became a defining chapter in the school’s artistic life, blending sisterhood, shared purpose, and a deep love of teaching.

Freddie officially retired once before, in 2005, to care for family and welcome her grandson. Yet even retirement could not dim her calling. As she famously put it, she was “always here anyway.” In 2010, she returned full-time, this time to ceramics, where she has continued to teach Upper School and eighth-grade students with the same joy, rigor, and imagination that have always defined her work.

What has made Freddie extraordinary is not simply that she taught art but how she taught it.

Her classrooms have always been places of safety and possibility. There are, as she once wrote, “no tears because of a mess-up.” Every spilled glaze, every cracked pot, every unexpected outcome is an invitation to problem-solve, collaborate, and grow. Freddie’s favorite question, “What if?, has empowered students to take risks, embrace failure, and discover capabilities they never imagined.

As beautifully captured in Pink Magazine, Freddie has been “a beacon” for young people on the island, guiding them through the confusion and vulnerability of growing up, offering a listening ear, a steady presence, and an identity rooted in creativity and confidence. Many students who struggled elsewhere found their voice in her classroom. As one former student reflected, “My art gave me a certain identity.” Freddie remembers their work decades later, not because she teaches projects, but because she teaches people.

Her influence extends far beyond the studio. Freddie taught Sunday School for 32 years, weaving art into faith education; volunteered with York Place Home for Children; opened her own home studio for after-school art classes filled with laughter and snacks; and continuously sought out professional learning—from SCAD to Arrowmont to Appalachian State—so she could bring fresh ideas back to her students. Even in retirement, she was always learning, always preparing to pass something new along.

Freddie’s excellence has been recognized many times: multiple Teacher of the Year honors, Island Teacher of the Year nominations, the Prep Distinguished Citizen/Educator Award in 2022, and the lasting legacy of the Frederica Carson Art Purchase Award, named in her honor. Yet her greatest reward, as she herself wrote in her 2016 SCISA Teacher of the Year nomination essay, has always been “the successes of my students.”

Freddie believes deeply and lives daily the idea that imagination matters. Long before encountering Einstein’s words, “Imagination is more important than knowledge,” Freddie had already made it her mantra. She understood that the innovators, creators, and problem-solvers of tomorrow are nurtured when children are trusted to explore, to make mistakes, and to see the world differently.

As Pamela Capriotti Martin wrote in An Artist’s Life, Freddie always wanted to teach because she wanted everyone “to feel the way I felt that first day of art class.” For thousands of students, she made that feeling real.

As Freddie retires, once again, and perhaps more convincingly this time, we celebrate her journey with immense gratitude. Her legacy lives on in clay and canvas, in confidence and curiosity, in the countless lives shaped by her steady belief that every child can be more successful than they imagine.

Freddie Carson did not simply teach art.
She taught courage.
She taught possibility.

She taught acceptance.
She taught us how to see.

And for that, Hilton Head Prep will be forever thankful.