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F I R S T 5 0 Y EAR S
Morris said John West had a lot to do with his coming here.
“You talk about a guy who was a statesman; he was a statesman.
My second visit, Stan Smith marched me over to John West’s of-
fice, and John West was personally interested in creating a really
comprehensive community technical college system and under-
stood enough about it to know how to talk about it, and that was
really great. He said, ‘Well, when I leave the governor’s office, I’m
going to be in Kershaw County, and I will help you if you go to
Sumter.’ I took that as a pretty good invitation.”
“Unfortunately, he got selected by the Carter administration
to go to Saudi Arabia and serve there as the US Ambassador. He
did a wonderful job there and was a real gentleman and a states-
man. I was really impressed with him.”
So Morris came to make a technical education center in Sum-
ter a true college-level institution with an emphasis on career and
technical education. “We were organized like a vocational high
school. The goal was to get the college accredited by the South-
ern Association of Colleges and Schools. We went to work on
getting organized like a college,” said Morris, “and then getting
accredited.”
Dr. Darrel Staat started with the system in 1974. “I got a call
from what’s now Northeastern Technical College, and I thought,
well, I’ll go look at this job. I did and I met amost wonderful man,
John McKay. He talked me into coming to Cheraw. I walked into
a school that was just shifting toward becoming a college. They
wanted me to help develop what would be needed on the general
education side of the house.”
In March 1974, the TEC board developed criteria for renam-
ing the centers “colleges” and reported, “In the world of business
and industry’s ever-changing technological demands along with
South Carolinians’ broadened and diverse educational needs;
‘colleges’ better describes the system’s centers.” Centers began to
change their names. Berkeley-Charleston-Dorchester TEC, for
instance, became Trident Technical College.
As names changed, as administrations designed courses and
as centers trained workers for new industries, more students
opted to pursue technical education. The technical training sys-
tem was growing, and it would evolve into a mainstay in South
Carolina’s educational landscape. Moreover, emerging technolo-
gies demanded that the centers acquire new equipment and the
requisite training of the trainers. Naming the centers remained
a thorny issue. Funding the growing system took on more ur-
gency. In addition to working with the captains of industry, the
system had to become more politically savvy. Keeping General
Assembly members happy was crucial.
POLITICS, PRESSURE, & PROVIDENCE
It’s been said that the tech system was founded on bourbon
and persuasion. Ed Zobel, longtime legislative liaison for the sys-
tem, would find no argument in that. He recalls those days when
supplying liquor was part and parcel of doing business. Enacting
legislation apparently works up a mighty thirst.
“A favorite watering hole sat just across the street from the
State House,” said Zobel. “When I first started down there all the
Pictured from left to right
–
O. Stanley Smith
(Chairman of the TEC
Committee from 1961-1971; Executive Director 1971-1973)
,
Governor John C. West, and Dr. David Kelly
(Associate Director)
The 1970s
A M O D E L F O R T H E N A T I O N E M E R G E S
