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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1968 1969
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
1968:
The U.S. Department of Labor awarded a grant of $2 million
to TEC to initiate the South Carolina Rural Concentrated
Employment Programs. The “Moody Report”, officially titled
Opportunity and Growth in South Carolina, 1968-1985
, was
compiled at the request of Governor Robert E. McNair.
Orangeburg-Calhoun TEC was founded.
1969:
Williamsburg Regional Manpower Training Center,
Beaufort TEC, and Denmark TEC were established.
a trained staff—that’s the promise Hollings sold. “Hollings was a
salesman,” said Smith. “Wade Martin would design a spreadsheet
for a company and show the manufacturer on paper what the
elimination of start-up costs would do for them. Hollings would
use that spreadsheet, and he could really spin a tale.”
Start-up day arrived, and the workforce started production
like it had been doing it for years. Typewriters passed inspection,
thrilling Smith-Corona.
ANOTHER 100-DAY MIRACLE
Avco Lycoming manufactured helicopter and jet engines, and
it wanted to build an assembly plant in Charleston. Avco wanted
a four-to-one selection ratio. Stan Smith recalls Walter Harper
saying, “My God, it’s going to take a miracle. They want four can-
didates for every one they accept, and they want 1,000 employees
in 100 days. What the heck are we going to do?”
“We wrung our hands and finally decided on several things,”
said Smith. “We got all the rural churches’ ministers to preach on
the subject. We got the Pepsi Cola and Coca-Cola truck drivers to
carry flyers to grocery stores in rural areas. The flyer was simple:
print your name and address here, if you have a phone number,
print it here and tell us something about what you’ve done in life.
That’s the application. Truck drivers, preachers, and storeowners
said, ‘Son take this, and I’ll help you fill it out.’”
Smith recalls, “South Carolinians were so hungry for jobs. We
ran those programs from four in the morning, two in the morn-
ing, six o’clock at night, whatever would please the most students,
and we delivered that workforce. But the wonderful part is, it had
instant success, because the politicians realized, ‘Hey, they’re put-
ting people to work right here. In less than 100 days, I’ve got 30,
40, 50, 100 employees. People in my county are going to work.’”
Daniels Construction Company was a one-man operation
in those days. “Charlie drove that Cadillac of his coast-to-coast
time and again,” said Smith. “To use the telephone he had to use
a pay station, but he never failed to deliver a building in 100 days,
including Avco in Charleston.”
In 100 days, Daniel built an enormous building where jet en-
gines would be forged from aluminum. “They had to use high-
way pavers to pave the floors and South Carolina Electric & Gas
Company for the lights that ran around the clock,” said Smith.
“Daniel erected the structure and we trained the workforce and
met the selection ratio and got the thousand workers, and they
started producing jet engines day one. It was amazing,” said
Smith. “Assembling a jet engine is no simple task.”
Success stories about companies that made diverse products
such as typewriters and jet engines kept piling up. All through
the 1960s South Carolina recruited businesses. All through the
1960s the tech centers turned out skilled workers for diversified
companies. From the beginning, the goal had been to mobilize a
great resource—the people of South Carolina.The decades to fol-
low would accomplish more great things. South Carolina, once
the land of cotton, would see that old times were being forgotten.
Political leaders took great pride in the technical training
system. Not surprisingly, confusion sometimes accompanied
the taking of credit for the technical system’s conception as John
West remembers. “In 1966, Ex-governor Hollings was running
for the Senate, BobMcNair (vice chairman on theWest Commit-
