Getting started . . .

On September 15, 1967, the GSC offices were opened on the fifth floor of the old Wicomico Hotel, now One Plaza East. But the work to lay the foundation of GSC started more than a year before.

A professor at Salisbury University, A. L. Fleming, was the catalyst who brought ideas and people together to look at the broader needs which were community-wide instead of a narrower business viewpoint.

A news article from the Oct. 18, 1966, issue of The Daily Times said, “Planning for a greater Salisbury area got off to a fresh start here Monday night with plans to organize an “action committee to get things done.” People at the meeting formed an ad hoc committee which then called a community-wide meeting with 114 invitees.

There were 36 members of GSC during its first year with William Bateman III from Dresser Industries serving as the first chair; Lewis Hess of Hess Apparel as the first vice chair; John Webb of Webb, Burnett & Simpson as second vice chair; E. S. Mortimer as treasurer; and Fleming as secretary. Others on the Executive Committee were E. Dale Adkins, E. Stanton Adkins, Richard Allen, Avery Hall, Joseph Manzer, William Morgan, Frank Perdue, Bob Rayner and Charles Truitt, Sr.

GSC’s first executive director, Robert Cook, was named in 1967.

GSC's original offices were on the fifth floor of the old Wicomico Hotel, now known as the One Plaza East Building.

Higher education a key . . .

Education has always been a high priority for GSC members and they played a critical role in keeping both Salisbury University and the University of Maryland Eastern Shore open and then in creating Wor-Wic Community College.

About 1971, GSC started hearing rumors that with only 670 students, Salisbury State Teachers College was “going down.” After a quiet study on the issue, GSC found out that Gov. Marvin Mandel had already made that decision when GSC Chair Daniel Byrd, president of Dresser Industries International, and GSC Exec. Dir. Robert Cook met with the governor at the Salisbury National Guard Armory through the assistance of State Sen. Mary Nock. Gov. Mandel held off the decision for a year and charged GSC to help “make it work.”

 
When GSC was working to keep Salisbury State University open, the student body and campus was much smaller than the highly-ranked Salisbury University is today.

In September 1970, the GSC membership endorsed the project of creating a community college for the Lower Eastern Shore. GSC member Frank Morris, who had been Salisbury’s mayor from 1962 to 1966, teamed up with GSC’s executive director to make presentations to nearly every community and civic group in the lower four counties over the next few years. After much lobbying and negotiating with the counties, finally Wicomico and Worcester supported the college and voted it into existence in 1975. David Stein, who was to become GSC’s 1976 chair, also became Wor-Wic Community College’s first board chair.

In the mid-1970s the executive director of Maryland’s Higher Education Board called GSC to ask for assistance with the University of Maryland Eastern Shore in stopping the decreasing enrollment plus helping with the deteriorating campus in order to keep it open. GSC’s Jack Webb took on that project to successfully avoid the closure of UMES or its merger with Salisbury State Teachers College (Salisbury University now).

John Toll, chancellor of the University of Maryland System, told GSC that “UMES wouldn’t be there today if it wasn’t for you.”

Stopping the ‘Brain Drain’
The continued loss of our “best and brightest” from the Lower Eastern Shore has been a continuing project since 2002. In that time, GSC has helped establish the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport (MARS) at Wallops and the Mid-Atlantic Institute for Space and Technology (MIST) in Pocomoke City in an attempt to create more high-tech jobs. GSC is continuing to define other high-tech industry clusters which would fit this region. To support the high-tech workforce, GSC has worked closely with UMES in securing a 4-year engineering program and a pharmacy program through the doctorate level for the Lower Eastern Shore.

Encouraging Community, Downtown and Economic Development
Helping our communities economically and allowing them to function better has been key. GSC helped form three economic development groups including SWED in the Wicomico County area, Chesapeake Country for the Mid-Shore area, and Urban Salisbury for the city’s downtown area. A parking study of Salisbury by GSC led to the construction of the downtown parking garage. In the mid-1970s, in the Urban River Project, GSC helped clean up the East Prong of the river where oil barges used to unload and to create Riverwalk Park with bulkheading and a pedestrian bridge. Now GSC is working on cleaning up the area on the North Prong with its rusting oil tanks in Urban River Project II. GSC was also active in the development of the Downtown Plaza.

Supporting Lower Eastern Shore Education
Education always has been central to GSC efforts including the formation of the Academy for Leadership in Education (ALE) program started in 2002 in cooperation with Salisbury University and the county school systems in Somerset, Wicomico, and Worcester counties. It provides leadership, not management, skills to those who are the future educational leaders.

Involving citizens in local government and leadership training
Developing leaders is a key with GSC and in the mid-1990s, GSC helped establish the Organize, Unite, and Revitalize (OUR) program to develop minority leaders. In 2003, when concerns developed with local government leadership, GSC developed the New Patriotism Program with a national organization to encourage more citizen involvement. That led to the creation of the Civic and Governmental Leadership Academy (CGLA) which trains 30 persons every two years to participate in local government through appointment to committees, commissions, task forces or boards, or even to run for office.

Helping bring local governments together
Communication and efficiency in government is important for GSC. In 2006, GSC helped create the Wicomico Council of Governments open to all municipalities in Wicomico County and the county itself in order to share information, and to discuss common issues and develop potential cooperation. GSC also worked to provide for a city-county building which the two governments could share with increased communication. The Fincher Quarter Century Report was another area for improving local governments and GSC strongly publicized the recommendations with the public and local leaders.

Encouraging Transportation.
When a crisis occurred with rail and water transportation, GSC stepped in to keep the community functioning. A barge on the C&D Canal hit the railroad bridge and knocked out service to the peninsula. GSC gathered the key players to arrange for alternative transportation and they met weekly in Salisbury to make arrangements until the bridge was re-built. When a crisis occurred with all barge traffic threatening to abandon the Wicomico River, GSC created the Delmarva Water Transport Committee (DWTC) of tow operators, shippers, the Coast Guard, the Army Corps of Engineers, and local governments to keep the supplies flowing. One oil barge replaces 150 truck-tankers over the Chesapeake Bay Bridge.