The growth and success of Del Mar Junior College from its birth as Corpus Christi Junior College in 1935 to its place of prominence among junior colleges in the nation by 1952 was nothing short of phenomenal. Del Mar would begin the 1952-53 school year with a total enrollment of 3,381 students, making it the 12th largest junior college in the United States. Del Mar was no longer under the control of CCISD but governed instead by its own Board of Regents with its own taxing authority.
Del Mar made national headlines in September 1952 when it admitted 7 Black students into classes on the main campus. This was two years before the historic desegregation case of Brown v. Board of Education. Previously, Black students were taught in their own separate classrooms at Coles HS, with the name “Solomon Coles Junior College”. The school was a division of Del Mar College. The makeshift facilities for Black students at Coles were vastly inferior to those at the main Del Mar campus. Dr. H. Boyd Hall, head of the local NAACP, approached the Del Mar Board of Regents to point out those unacceptable differences, convincing the Regents that it was time to integrate the college. The integration of Del Mar went smoothly and without incident. Many Del Mar students made it clear that they did not favor carrying over the prejudices of previous generations into their own.
Throughout the 1950’s, enrollment at Del Mar continued to grow and facilities expanded at the school. In 1957 a new Fine Arts Building was constructed, decorated with unique, colored glass mosaics created by local artist, Mary Sloan. The Fine Arts program (Art, Music, and Drama) at Del Mar was the only one of its kind among junior colleges in Texas and was said to be one of the finest in the country. Much of that success was due to the tireless efforts of Music Department Chairman, Burdette Wolfe. The college was also developing plans for a Science Building, a Student Union, four new classroom buildings, tennis courts, and dormitories for out-of-area students.
With over 2,100 academic students expected to enroll in Del Mar for the 1958-59 school year, the college found itself running out of classroom space and in danger of losing its accreditation. The decision was made to move vocational students to a new campus on the west side of town on Old Brownsville Road. The nine-acre campus, to be called the “Del Mar Technical-Vocational Institute” would open in September 1958. Five new buildings on the new, $400,000 campus would be dedicated in August 1958. Associate degrees would be offered in the technological fields of air conditioning, electrical, drafting, electronics, and industrial instruments technology. Vocational classes would continue to be offered in such courses as nursing, welding, auto mechanics, radio/TV, and agriculture at the new campus. The move to Del Mar Tech would free up the Vocational Building on the main campus and provide the much-needed additional classrooms for Del Mar’s academic programs.
Del Mar’s reputation for academic excellence was complemented by success on the football field. For 13 years, starting in 1948, the Del Mar Viking football team compiled one of the best records in the state. The team won 89 games, lost 21, and tied 8. That included wins in five bowl games and a loss in only one….the 1959 Junior Rose Bowl in Pasadena. Despite the huge success of its football teams on the field, public attendance at the games was poor, and the college was losing an average of $30,000 a year on the football program. After the 1960 season, the Board of Regents made the decision to end Del Mar football in favor of an intramural sports program.
The decade of the 1960’s was a period of more extraordinary growth at Del Mar. There was a major movement in 1961, led by Del Mar’s longtime President, Dr. E. L. Harvin, to convert Del Mar into a full, four-year university. But, after several years of exhaustive studies and a negative recommendation from the State Commission on Higher Education, Del Mar remained a 2-year junior college. On September 1, 1961, Dr. Harvin resigned from his post as President, a post he had held since 1946. Del Mar Dean, Dr. Grady St. Clair became the new President and Dr. Jean Richardson replaced St. Clair as Dean of the college. St. Clair had been with Del Mar since 1941. He would oversee Del Mar’s massive expansion during the 1960’s. A $1.2 million bond was passed by voters in October 1961, providing $800,000 for the construction of a new Science Building on the main campus and over $100,000 for the expansion of the Del Mar Tech campus. The new Science Building would open in August 1963.
Academic enrollment on the main campus for the 1964-65 school year had reached 3,010 students with projected enrollment to reach 9,000 students by 1984. The campus and its facilities would have to undergo a massive expansion to accommodate that kind of growth. So, a 20-year plan for expansion was adopted in 1964. It included plans to double the size of the main campus from 31 acres to 63 acres. That would mean the need to acquire residential land to the south and east of the campus through purchase and eminent domain, and an aggressive building program. In December 1965, a contract for the construction of a new library was awarded to O.J. Beck and Sons for $798,000. The two-story building, designed by Bill Whittet, was constructed to allow for additional stories to be added later. Contracts were also awarded for construction of a new English Building, an expansion of the Fine Arts Building, and a new addition to the Gymnasium, complete with an indoor pool, volleyball courts, and weight room. Overseeing Del Mar’s rapid growth in the late 1960s would be the new President of the college, Dr. Jean Richardson. The 40-year-old Richardson assumed his role as President on September 1, 1966. He started his career as an economics teacher at Del Mar in 1947 and served Del Mar as its President until 1984.
Del Mar would end the decade of the 1960s with an enrollment of 4,325 academic students on the main campus for the 1969-70 school year. Enrollment in vocational, technical, adult education and non-credit classes totaled more than 8,000.
As a lifelong Corpus Christi resident, I always knew that after high school graduation I would attend Del Mar. I enrolled in September 1968 and would eventually earn 52 hours of college credit, all of which transferred to the University of Texas at Austin in 1970. As a U-T graduate, I’ve always maintained the belief that the courses I took at Del Mar were on par with or even superior in some ways to any that I took at U-T. As one of the greatest assets in the Coastal Bend, Del Mar College continued to grow and expand. The story of Del Mar’s phenomenal growth over the next 50 years comes in Part 3.
Robert Parks is a special contributor to KRIS 6 News. Parks was a history teacher at Carroll High School for 19 years and is now retired. His knowledge of Corpus Christi history makes him a unique expert in the subject.
