By Kat Walsh
Beaufort Pharmacy & Compounding hosted a grand opening ceremony on Aug. 9 to introduce the new business – and the business of compounding – to the community.
For the majority of those in attendance however, not everything about the pharmacy is new. The location and its namesake are both a bit of Beaufort history. From 1984 until 2008, it was Aimar’s Pharmacy headed by Dr. Charles Aimar.
“Dr. Aimar was one of the patriarchs of Beaufort, and just a true Southern gentleman,” said Christine Seabrook, of Beaufort. She recalled the first Aimar’s Pharmacy on Carteret Street and Aimar’s dedication to his craft and his patients.
“He was the only one who would do house calls,” she said. “He would do whatever it took to get a patient what they needed.”
A committed community member, Aimar had many roles and responsibilities beyond his pharmacy, including as a member of the Beaufort Volunteer Fire Department, the Beaufort City Council and president of the South Carolina Independent School Association, which presents the annual Dr. Charles S. Aimar Educational Leadership Award to the most outstanding leader among the association’s 112 schools.
Dr. Jeremy Simmons and his wife, Amanda, who works at TCL, opened Beaufort Pharmacy & Compounding earlier this month and have been pleasantly surprised by both the amount of business and acceptance they have received from the community.
“We don’t just want to be in Beaufort, we want to be part of Beaufort,” Jeremy Simmons said.
Mayor Billy Keyserling expressed his pleasure at the building’s return to its previous home as a pharmacy, sharing his own childhood memories of Aimar, his pharmacy and his personality.
“I am just so honored to be invited here to be part of this,” said Jeanne Aimar, Aimar’s widow, who attended the opening as a special guest. She said that while the building holds memories of countless stories about her husband and his patients, one of the most iconic is about Aimar’s kilts.
“One thing about Charlie was he loved his kilts,” she said. “He would have them delivered to the store and, as soon as one arrived, he’d run into the back and put it on.”
In honor of this memory and the man who created it, a photograph of Aimar in a kilt hangs prominently on the wall next to two other images of him doing the work he loved.
With a second pharmacy in Hampton, Simmons says it’s good to get back to Beaufort professionally.
“For a town of this size not to have a compounding pharmacy is unreal,” he said.
He said his philosophy is to work individually with each patient to customize exactly what he or she needs. For example; a child may need a small, pleasant-tasting liquid dose of a drug made only in adult-dosage tablets, or a person may be allergic to one of the ingredients in the commercial version of a drug.
Compounding is also used for customized hormone replacement therapy, hospice care, pain management therapy, sports medicine and veterinary needs.
Top photo: A ribbon-cutting was held for Beaufort Pharmacy & Compounding on Aug. 9. Photo by Kat Walsh.
