FCA Outdoors leader died Sunday from covid complications.
The Columbia County community is mourning the loss of a man who invested in their youth.
James “Skipper” Hair died Sunday night at North Florida Regional Medical Center from covid-19 related complications. He was 50 years old. His funeral arrangements have not yet been announced.
“I thought he was going to be fine, honestly, I really did,” said his wife, Crystal Hair, noting he was hospitalized for 47 days. “He was really strong.”
She said there are no words to describe what Hair meant to her and the countless people he influenced.
“That was my best friend,” she said. “He was my everything. I followed him in ministry, with FCA, with Camp Anderson Anchored and I wouldn’t change anything. He was the greatest man I’ve ever known. He had the biggest heart and he just loved everyone.”
Hair, a Columbia County native, worked for FCA and FCA Outdoors and years ago served as the Columbia High School football team chaplain and was on the team’s coaching staff.
Hair wrote a monthly column for the Woods and Water outdoor magazine and last month Crystal wrote the column to let his readers know he was hospitalized with an illness and she was able to see the impact her husband had on others.
“I got so many comments,” she said. “Then they talk about the impact he’s made. I was talking about what an impact he has had and so many people are reaching out to me — it’s crazy… It’s just been amazing the people that have reached out to me and just shared story after story about the impact he had on them.”
High school sweethearts, Skipper and Crystal Hair were recently hired to renovate Camp Anderson Anchored where they were the new directors of the site in Old Town. Hair had hosted a couple football camps at the site as well as a girl’s camp.
Tana Norris, Lake City Christian Academy Director, said Hair had worked at the private school for several years and about two years ago he stopped to go into the ministry full time, but he continued to have an office at the school.
“Skipper was sold out to Christ,” she said, noting she’s known Hair since he was a child and as worked with him as a pastor for about six years. “He loved God more than anything or anybody. He was always sharing his love for the Lord and he loved everybody. We have students here that are going through a lot of stuff and he didn’t care. He loved them right where they were. He was just a good person. He had gone through a lot in his life when he was younger, but when he accepted Christ as his Lord and Savior, he turned his whole, entire life around and he never looked back.”
Lake City Christian Academy added a message to its marquee after Hair’s death, honoring him and what he meant to the school.
Norris said it was important to the school to honor and respect Hair in that manner because he made such an impact on the school and its students.
“He made an impact on everyone he met,” she said. “I could have picked up the phone, if he were here today, and called him and said, ‘Skipper I really need you to come. I need some help’ and he would be here. There would be no questions asked… He’s made a difference in students’ lives. We have students that have struggled and he has been right there to lift them up and be the father figure that a lot of these students don’t have.”
Norris, her voice cracking from emotion, said Hair’s loss will be felt throughout the community.
“It’s sad,” she said somberly. “It’s hard to find people like Skipper Hair anymore. He can’t be replaced. That void that is there, he can’t be replaced. If you knew him and people that knew him would tell you that Skipper Hair was a man of integrity, love and compassion, he stood for what he believed in and his ‘yes’ was yes and his ‘no’ was no. What he said to you, that was it. He didn’t backbite or talk about people… How do you replace that? How do you replace someone that has invested their life into children…”
That investment also included work with the Columbia High football team, where he spent some time as an assistant and chaplain.
“He was inspirational to them,” CHS Principal Trey Hosford said, adding Hair wasn’t involved with this year’s team. “He was a motivator, and I’m not even talking football, just about life. He had lots of talks with the team. He was someone that wanted to see them successful, not just on the football field, but in life.
“Since he passed, I can’t tell you how many people I’ve seen on social media and in person that commented (about) the impact he had on them — the talks, listening to them, just being there as a friend or somebody they could come to when they were in need. He meant a lot to a lot of young people over the years at CHS.”
Hosford said lots of times Hair was open to the youngsters about his life and the paths that he had taken, in the hopes they could learn from him.
“It’s a great loss,” he said. “Even though he wasn’t necessarily around the football program this year, I still know that a lot of those guys looked up to him, a lot of those guys still reached out to him. He made himself available for our community for a lot of different things. He was always a phone call away for those guys and that’s one less person that they have to go to now. He always made himself available for our young men who played football and anybody else that needed something…”
Crystal Hair said her husband poured into youth and loved Tiger Football.
“He loved Tiger Football, that was his heart,” she said, noting he was a former CHS football player. “He didn’t like college or pros, it was just high school, Tiger Football. I think he bled purple and gold. He loved them.”