NED MCNAIR

Co-Founder of Real Champions, Inc. 

Ned’s story is a testament to the power of mentorship to transform a child’s destiny. Growing up, his family life was very challenging, and so he never received the support or help that he needed to learn and master his schoolwork. Ned failed eighth grade and was required to attend summer school for three years in a row to graduate from high school.  

One defining mentorship presence for Ned was the United States Navy. He served for four years before relocating with his wife and daughter to Hilton Head Island, SC, and taking up work in Jasper County. This was when Ned began to truly see rural poverty and its effects. Driving along the back roads of South Carolina, he came face to face with a reality that transformed him and that has led to over forty-two years of working with youth and over twenty years of intensive study of poverty (particularly Southern rural poverty). Nearly twenty years ago, Ned sold his business, retired, and began to investigate existing programs that were designed to mitigate or reverse the effects of poverty. He began mentoring students in the Hilton Head Island Public School System and, in 2017, alongside Executive Director Carl Martin, founded Real Champions, Inc. Ned is convinced that the cycle of generational poverty can be broken, and he is determined to see it happen. 

One of Ned’s favorite activities is walking the beach at sunrise and photographing the wonders of nature in the moment of their creation. He also enjoys saltwater fishing with his grandson. Ned reads slowly but continuously and (of his own admission) writes poorly but with great enthusiasm. 

Ned has been married to the most darling woman on the planet for over fifty-five years and loves the fact that their only child, a brilliant daughter, has married well, lives only twenty minutes away, and has two wonderful children herself.