In Memory
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KEV IN WALKER
Kevin Walker, a beloved member of the Wrightsville Beach community, lost his courageous
battle with prostate cancer on May 24, 2022. He was 66. He was born into a U.S. Marine family
in Craven County, North Carolina, and made Wrightsville Beach his home since 1973.
IS was a true entre-preneurial
story.
At the University of
North Carolina Wilm-ington,
a member of the
Tau Kappa Epsilon
(TKE) fraternity studying marine biol-ogy,
Kevin began working at Atlantic
Diving & Demolition. On a job, he met
a young man who was fresh out of high
school. Mike McCarley would become
his best friend and business partner for
48 years.
Kevin and Mike were captivated by
marine construction and together took
control of the company in 1978. The
following year, they purchased a dive
shop on Causeway Drive, Undersea Sales
and Engineering, where they operated
local dives off the coast.
In the early 1980s, they prepared and
sunk two tugboats, the Socony 8 and the
Stone Brothers, three miles off Wrights-ville
Beach that provided artificial reef
sites for the N.C. Department of Marine
Fisheries.
They changed the business name to
Atlantic Diving & Marine Contractors in
1986, focusing solely on commercial projects. They welded bridges
and did other underwater work while wearing commercial diving
suits and being submerged for hours at a time, in sometimes freez-ing
water and zero visibility.
Their burgeoning commercial marine construction business took
them around the United States.
When Hurricane Hugo barreled ashore along the Southeastern
U.S. in 1989, Kevin went to Charleston, South Carolina, salvaging
private and commercial boats.
Success grew with a contract to rebuild 51 tank bridges for the
military in Georgia.
16 july 2022
WBM
Their first venture into the shipping
business was berthing the Maritime
Administration Ready Reserve Fleet on
property they owned on the west bank
of the Cape Fear River, just south of the
Cape Fear Memorial Bridge.
In 1998, they began working on
the Shell Island Dune reconstruction
project, and when Hurricane Floyd hit
in 1999 they were instrumental in the
move to save the north end of Wrights-ville
Beach by installing a Geotube
repair bag wall. Later they installed
hundreds of feet of steel sheet metal
pile in the construction and reopening
of the newly dug, relocated Mason
Inlet.
In July 2002, Atlantic Diving &
Marine Contractors rebuilt Johnnie
Mercers Pier, replacing the historic
wooden pier with concrete.
They moved into property invest-ments,
and purchased 19 acres on River
Road, just south of the state port in
Wilmington. In 2003, they created a
privately owned port, Carolina Marine
Terminal, on site.
While Atlantic Diving & Marine
WBM FILE PHOTO
Contractors was doing marine consulting work that expanded to
Mexico and South America, the private port held million-dollar
contracts with national companies importing salt, chromium
and urea.
In 2004, they extended the Banks Channel pier for the
Wrightsville Beach U.S. Coast Guard Station and installed a
floating dock. In 2013, they transported the historic Palmgren-
O’Quinn house on a barge from Harbor Island en route to its
home on the Wrightsville Beach Historic Square, where it would
become the southeast office and education center for the N.C.
Coastal Federation.
H
Kevin Walker on the porch of the Cotton Blossom,
East Oxford Street, while participating in the
Wrightsville Beach Magazine’s 2007 Entrepreneur
Luncheon (May 2007).