LeTourneau University, Longview, Texas
Robert LeTourneau was an American industrialist who worked as an ironmonger’s apprentice, learned welding, studied mechanics and automobile repair through correspondence courses, and eventually gained experience as a carpenter, brick layer, miner, and in several other trades. In 1911 he opened the Superior Garage in Stockton California to both sell and service automobiles. Following its failure and World War One, he moved into manufacturing.
In 1921, LeTourneau established a company which both manufactured earthmoving machinery and contracted for work using the equipment. The company grew steadily and by World War Two LeTourneau had manufacturing plants in several states and in New South Wales, Australia. The war offered new opportunities for LeTourneau’s company, as the Allied armies and the Navy’s Seabee battalions needed earth moving equipment.
More than two thirds of the heavy earth moving equipment and other engineering machines procured by the United States and Allied forces during the Second World War were supplied by LeTourneau. When the GI Bill of Rights was announced during the war, which provided educational benefits for returning veterans, LeTourneau saw another opportunity on the horizon. A devout Christian, he envisioned a Christian college for the education of the returning veterans.
LeTourneau was well known as a philanthropist who supported Christian causes and institutions throughout his successful career. In 1946, along with his wife and the support of local businessmen and community leaders, he established the Letourneau Technical Institute, which was chartered by the State of Texas in February 1946. In the beginning the Institute was part of LeTourneau’s company and admission was limited to men, nearly all of them veterans.
LeTourneau Technical Institute grew steadily, offering programs in which students acquired practical experience working in the nearby LeTourneau plant, and fueled by the GI Bill. In 1961 the school became Letourneau College and co-educational. In 1989 the college became LeTourneau University. During the late twentieth century and early twenty first, the school offered off-campus classes and online class programs for eligible students. Robert Letourneau died in 1969.