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
|
1 1
The 1960s
M O B I L I Z I N G A G R E A T R E S O U R C E
ufacturers wanted to modernize. Special Schools could make
them more successful, and if things turned out as hoped, South
Carolina could keep people off the Chicken Bone Express.
A DRINK WITH THE COLONEL
Hollings wrote the bill establishing a technical college system,
but as John West said, “Politicians’ plans are worthless unless im-
plemented.” Hollings’ bill attained a measure of worth when the
House passed it. The Senate came next.
“With John West, I knew I could get it through in the Senate,”
said Hollings. All seemed well, but subterfuge can intervene any-
time as Hollings remembers.
“I walked into the office and Muller Kreps, my chief of staff
says, ‘Governor, this kills your technical training.’”
“What do you mean it kills my technical training? The House
just passed it.”
“Yeah, but they got into a conference on the Deficiency Ap-
propriations bill, and that’s the last bill they’re going to pass be-
fore adjourning. The Conference Committee’s meeting now, and
Edgar Brown struck it out.”
“Go down the hall and get a bottle of bourbon.”
Hollings never kept liquor in his office, but he valued its per-
suasive power with the chairman. “Coming from Charleston, we
were liquor heads and the press was always pulling out drawers
when I was gone looking for liquor. I wasn’t going to let them
prove anything against me.”
The original Advisory Committee for Technical Training
Seated from left to right
– J. Boone Aiken, Alvin F. Heinson, Clarence Rowland, Sr.;
Standing left to right
– O. Stanley Smith, Jr., A. Wade Martin, Sapp Funderburk, Jesse T. Anderson, (not pictured: J. Bonner Manly and Walter W. Harper)
