S C T E CHN I CA L CO L L E G E S Y S T EM ’ S
F I R S T 5 0 Y EAR S
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ville Technical College’s first president Dr. Tom Barton remem-
bered those afflicted with poverty, the broken families, the uned-
ucated, and single moms.
Dr. Lex Walters resurrected those days when textile workers
had a ninth or a tenth grade education because they quit school
and got a job in the mill as soon as they turned sixteen. Their par-
ents worked there; their grandparents worked there; they carried
on the tradition.
Dr. Darrel Staat harbors a unique perspective—that of an out-
sider-insider-outsider-insider. He came from Michigan to work
at what is now Northeastern Technical College. He then worked
at the Florence-Darlington Technical College before going to
Maine to assume a college presidency. Then he went to Virgin-
ia’s community college system. Eleven years later he returned to
South Carolina’s system. “If you really want to know how good
this system is, get out of it. Live in another state. Work in their
education system, then come back. Then you’ll much better ap-
preciate what’s here than if you live in it all the time.”
His words ring crystal clear, thanks to veracity borne of ex-
perience.
Dr. Barry Russell recalls the system’s do-what-it-takes attitude
to make South Carolina a better place to live and work. “I had a
wonderful office as president of Midlands Technical College, but
if a company wanted to locate in South Carolina, and their em-
ployees needed training in a setting as nice as my office, I would
have gladly moved out and let them use my office. In this system,
the culture trumps everything. Other states have copied us, but
I’mnot sure that’s part of the culture like it is here, and that’s what
makes us work so well.”
2009
true. Bill Dudley, system president from 1976 to 1986, said, “The
beauty of the tech program is that the system could solve a prob-
lem in two to three days.”
No matter the challenge, you can’t keep a good system down.
For certain Wade Martin, the system’s first executive director,
would agree with that, as would the leaders who guided the sys-
tem and its colleges through the decades.
So, here we are, a fifty-year narrative in our hand—a unique
collection of memories and extraordinary insight into the redi-
rection of a state’s destiny. Some 40,000 words later, what, pray
tell, are we to make of Fritz Hollings’ epiphany that night in Ak-
ron, Ohio?
Everything.
A PLACE TO SUCCEED
We’ve visited with leaders who understood what it means to
touch lives, to give people a way to change their destiny. Green-
2010
2009:
Apprenticeship Carolina
™
was recognized nationally as one
of ten innovative workforce development best practices.
The System and readySC
™
played a key role in a monumental
economic development win for the state through its ability to
recruit and train the workforce for Boeing.
2010:
Apprenticeship Carolina
™
earned South Carolina the title
of “most aggressive state” in growing registered
apprenticeship programs. Darrel Staat returned to South
Carolina to serve as executive director.
“If you really want to know how good
this system is live in another state.
Work in their education system then
come back. Then you’ll much better
appreciate what’s here.”
—Dr. Darrel Staat
The 2000s
F L Y I N G H I G H
