Hollings: The ‘father of the South Carolina Technical College System’

South Carolina’s Technical College System has existed since 1959 and educates more students each year than all the state’s other colleges and universities combined, its president, Jimmie Williamson, often says.

No one was more critical to the start of the technical college system than former S.C. Gov. Ernest “Fritz” Hollings, the visionary and propitiator of technical school training in South Carolina.

“Fritz Hollings is the father of the South Carolina Technical College System,” Williamson said. “He created the concept, he fought for the funding and he has avidly supported its mission since the beginning.”

The technical college system today is comprised of 16 colleges located across the state, each year educating more than 250,000 South Carolinians – proving to be the engine the state needed to train and develop its workforce.

This story was originally published November 19, 2015 at 12:13 PM with the headline "Hollings: The ‘father of the South Carolina Technical College System’."