The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 67, July 1963 - April, 1964 Page: 373
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NASA's Manned Spacecraft Center
This influx of industrial and scientific firms cooperating with
MSC had truly phenomenal results. For one thing, as the Texas
Employment Commission happily discovered, it opened in Hous-
ton "almost unlimited opportunities in the field of space tech-
nology."" It created new businesses, expanded old ones, in-
creased the demand for investment and skilled personnel, and
inspired diversification in the oil industry. In 1962 alone, ten
computer companies transferred to Houston to compete for
MSC contracts or to work with the new aerospace firms and thus
"get some of the fall-out from the main effort.""' At the same
time Houston oil outfits like Reed Roller Bit, Hughes Tool,
Mission Manufacturing, Cameron Iron Works, and Schulem-
berger-all heretofore exclusively oilfield enterprises-promptly
organized aerospace or electronics subsidiaries and started com-
peting as well.82 So did Houston-based Brown and Root, Ruska
Instrument Corporation, and Gulf Interstate Engineering Con-
sultants."8 Such growth, such diversification and expansion, in
turn stimulated virtually every other form of business activity.
Manufacturing sales rose higher and faster than ever before."'
Banking activity increased markedly over 1961." And flights at
the Houston International Airport went up 7 per cent as over
three hundred businessmen a month flew in to visit the Manned
Spacecraft Center and to discuss with the Chamber of Commerce
"OTexas Employment Commission, Manpower Patterns Through x966 ... in the
Eight-County Houston-Gulf Coast Area (Austin, 1962), 4.
"6William A. Parker, Remarks on the Impact of the Space Age: Presented to the
Houston Financial Institute Executives, February 26, 1963 (typescript; Manned
Spacecraft Center, Houston); Robert H. Brewer to S.B.O., Houston, interview,
August 2, 1963.
62Ibid.; John Moody, Moody's Industrial Manual (New York, 1963), eo43.
63Houston Magazine (May, 1962), 24; Robert H. Brewer to S.B.O., Houston,
interview, August 2, 1963.
"Houston Chamber of Commerce, Growth and Development of Houston and
Harris County: a Statistical Summary (Houston, 1963), 1, 3, 6-7; Houston Chamber
of Commerce, Monthly Statistical Summary, June, 1963 (Houston, 1963), 6.
e"According to Lloyd Thomas, Supervising Examiner for the Eleventh Federal
Reserve District, who in July, 1963, ran a survey of Texas banking activities, the
Manned Spacecraft Center at Houston was "sparking an economic explosion" not
only in its immediate area, but over the state as well. The number of banks in
Texas had leaped to an unprecedented 1,o30o--more than any other state. In the
fiscal year 1962-1963 total deposits in Texas banks rose $589 million and total bank
assets $959 million, a substantial increase over 1961-1962. United Press International
in Houston Chronicle, July 29, 1963.373
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Texas State Historical Association. The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 67, July 1963 - April, 1964, periodical, 1964; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth101197/m1/435/?rotate=270: accessed July 16, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.