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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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
the golf course watching his team play, and he would come up
behind you and say, ‘Zobel, you know that money you need in
the budget?’”
“Yes, sir, Mr. Chairman.”
“You better make this putt.”
A TREMENDOUS SENSE OF MISSION
All the pressure and politics were worth it. The payoff came
when industries relocated to the state. South Carolina, once a
one-industry state, now played host to multiple modern indus-
tries. Its technical centers were thriving, and industries were ex-
panding in and relocating to South Carolina. In less than eight
years, the state had attracted sixteen West German companies
whose combined value exceeded $307 million. There was more
West German capital in South Carolina than any place outside
West Germany. Herberlein Patent Corporation, a Swiss textile
machinery importer, placed its headquarters in Greenville. Tex-
tone Inc., a plywood manufacturer headquartered in Los An-
geles, leased a 31,600-square foot plant in Charleston. Buckeye
Telephone and Supply of Columbus, Ohio, opened a distribu-
tion plant in Rock Hill with plans to do $8 to $10 million in
business in 1973. All across the state, industries were moving
in.
A tremendous feeling of mission drove the 1970s ascent.
“South Carolina was being transformed,” said Dr. Lex Walters.
“The technical college systemwas the entity to assist in that trans-
formation. And those of us in leadership roles felt a tremendous
responsibility to move the system forward. And in moving the
system forward, basically, you move the state forward because as
businesses and industries came in and added new kinds of jobs,
as the economic base was diversified, South Carolina was stron-
ger. The tax base was stronger. No longer did South Carolina have
to say, ‘Thank goodness for Mississippi.’”
New industries came. “We had a lot of industries moving
in, though, across the state,” said Walters. “They were not huge
numbers into the thousands, but they were anywhere from 50
to 200 employees apiece, initially. And as they grew, they added
a number of others. I think across the state of South Carolina, if
you look from the mid-1970s to the mid-1980s, you had large
numbers of those smaller companies that were coming in and
being located across the state of South Carolina. In Greenwood,
where I live, at one time, we had three major textile industries:
Abney Mills, Regal, and Greenwood Mills. Over 6,000 people in
Greenwood County alone were employed in the textile industry.
Today only about 200 are employed in the textile industry. Thank
goodness we had large numbers of other employers that moved
in. The American manufacturing headquarters for Fuji, Capsu-
gel, Parke-Davis, Monsanto came. Westinghouse moved in. Cin-
cinnati Milacron moved in. All of these companies diversified
the economic base, added new higher-skilled jobs, higher-pay-
ing jobs. So the community was greatly strengthened. The same
thing was true all across the state.”
Walters said the energy within the technical college sys-
tem was tremendous. “People believed in what they were do-
ing. They didn’t mind sharing what they were doing. And that
enthusiasm was contagious. At that point, South Carolina,
through its technical college system, had an edge. We had the
reputation of having the finest technical college system in the
country, of being the most responsive to the new employers
The TEC Centers are not to compete
with colleges. They are to give
concentrated training in skills needed
by high school graduates or persons
being retrained for another vocation.
—Anderson Independent, March 12, 1970
