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 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
THE PSYCHIATRIST’S COUCH
Greenville Tech signed up, as did two others. “Wade and I,
we had three tech centers ready,” said Smith. “They had the mon-
ey. They had their land. They had the brick and mortar. They had
their architects. They had everything set. And we were going to
apply for the budget to equip and staff those three centers in the
first year.”
Funding time arrived. The men went to see Jim Smith, state
auditor and budget manager, in his austere conference room.
“There was a big white oak table with hard chairs around it and a
bench in the hall. The centerpiece of the conference room was a
psychiatric couch,” said Stan Smith.
The place was filled with people seeking funding: Department
of Health and Environmental Control leaders and University of
South Carolina leaders. “It was amusing to see the university,
which had six lawyers, three deans, one provost, one president,
and a chairman of the board parade in there with their briefcases
and charts. Wade and I had a manila folder.”
Greenville TEC
