Texas State Technical College (TSTC), originally named the James Connally Technical Institute and then the Texas State Technical Institute, has been providing technical-vocational training to students in Texas since 1965. Today, with campuses located all across the state the school educates over 15,000 students. The films in the Texas State Technical College Archive Collection demonstrate the range of programs of study available to students at the college’s various campuses. Shortly after opening its first campus, the TSTC found itself rapidly expanding to accommodate the needs of Texans. This footage captures a range of activities addressing this demand, such as Board of Regents meetings in which they prepare for the expansion of programs and the addition of new campuses. The importance of these campuses is further made evident through the oration of former Governor of Texas John Connally, speaking at the opening of a campus in Amarillo. In addition to the images of the decision-making officials, this footage also contains imagery of students at work in the various college facilities, shots of Air Force planes landing on campus at the James Connally Airport, and interviews with Dr. Roy W. Dugger, the college’s first president, and Dr. Jack Tompkins, who later served as the president of the TSTC System.
The 38th Governor of Texas, John Bowden Connally, Jr., was born on a farm near Floresville, Texas, on February 27, 1917. Connally graduated from the University of Texas at Austin in 1941 with a law degree and was subsequently admitted to the State Bar of Texas. He began his political career as a legislative assistant to Representative Lyndon B. Johnson in 1939. The two retained a close but often torrid friendship until LBJ’s death. After returning from U.S. Naval combat in the Pacific Theater, Connally joined an influential Austin law firm, served as LBJ’s campaign manager and aide, and became oil tycoon Sid W. Richardson’s legal counsel. Connally’s reputation as a political mastermind was solidified after managing five of LBJ’s major political campaigns, including the 1964 presidential election. In 1961, Connally served as Secretary of the Navy under President John F. Kennedy.
Wealthy financiers like Sid Richardson and a strong grassroots network of supporters helped Connally win his first gubernatorial election in 1962. The three-term governor fought to expand higher education by increasing teachers’ salaries, creating new doctoral programs, and establishing the Texas Commission on the Arts and the Texas Historical Commission. In 1969, President Richard Nixon appointed Connally to the foreign-intelligence advisory board. He was named the 61st Secretary of the Treasury in 1971. Connally became one of the President’s principal advisors and headed the Democrats for Nixon organization, finally switching to the Republican Party in 1973. Connally is also remembered nationally for being in the car with President Kennedy during his assassination in Dallas in 1963, when Connally received wounds in his chest, wrist, and thigh.
The former Texas governor announced in January 1979 that he would seek the Republican presidential nomination. His campaign was abandoned after media attacks over a controversial public speech and bank partnership. Financial troubles befell Connally by the mid-1980s after a real estate development partnership with former Texas Representative Ben Barnes collapsed. John Connally died on June 15, 1993, and is interred at the Texas State Cemetery in Austin.
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