Twenty-five years ago, he was a leader in the group who changed Austin's destiny. Now, this giant of Austin's economic history is retiring. by Brewster McCracken

 

July 11, 2008

Can you remember what you were doing 25 years ago?

My parents certainly remember what I was doing. In fact, most everyone who was living on Santa Monica Place in Corpus Christi at the time remembers. I was the surfer with long blond hair at the end of the block (as opposed to my younger brother Kevin, the surfer with long brown hair).

More ominously, I was the kid who had just used my savings as a busboy to buy a Gibson Les Paul electric guitar.

I had been playing an acoustic guitar peacefully for several years. But the Les Paul was a new experience. With its low action and big sound, a Gibson Les Paul guitar is an incredibly fun guitar to play. When you are a high school boy with dreams of being the next Alex Lifeson or Ric Emmett, it is an even more fun guitar to play loud.

I was under no illusions at the time that my surfing would lead to anything (although I had landed my busboy job at Gallagher’s Steakhouse because I was a surfer—the restaurant’s manager was also a surfer, and my job interview consisted of us trading surfing stories). I was very hopeful, however, about my guitar playing.

 

This month is the 25th anniversary of THE big event in Austin’s economic history.

Twenty-five years ago this month, a group of visionary Austinites engineered one of the biggest long shot triumphs in American economic history. Their success changed Austin’s destiny. The model they developed through this effort is now emulated by cities around the world aspiring to become what economist Richard Florida describes as “global Austins.”

Now, one of the leaders of that group is retiring.

Back in 1983, Ben Streetman was a UT engineering professor in his early 40’s who had moved back to Austin the year before. The son of a Baptist minister, he was born in East Texas and grew up in West Texas.

He entered UT in 1957. At UT, he participated in sit-ins and marches to integrate businesses on the Drag. In addition to being principled and ahead of his time, he was also an exceptional engineering student.

Dr. Streetman received his Ph.D. from UT in 1966, then he joined the faculty at the University of Illinois. He stayed there for the next 16 years. Fortunately for Austin, UT lured him back in 1982.

Just as Dr. Streetman arrived in Austin, the nation’s major technology companies were banding together to form a research and development consortium: the Microelectronics and Computer Technology Corporation, or MCC for short.

According to the Handbook of Texas Online’s excellent account, MCC would “combine the resources of the leading high-tech U.S. companies to produce breakthrough technologies that member companies could then bring back to their own labs and integrate into their product lines.” That meant companies in the consortium would likely locate in the city where the consortium went.

Now, MCC just needed to decide where to locate. A total of 57 cities submitted bids. The initial favorites were cities that had strong concentrations of high tech firms—Silicon Valley, Boston’s Route 128 corridor and the Research Triangle in North Carolina.

In what proved to one of Austin’s finest hours, the city’s business, education and political leadership pulled together in a display of “intense cooperation” (as a University of Texas analysis later described it). Ben Streetman, the young professor who had been back in Austin only a year, was picked by the University to represent UT in this cooperative effort.

In early 1983, MCC announced four semifinalists: San Diego, Atlanta, North Carolina’s Research Triangle, and Austin.

At this stage, Austin took an approach that was unprecedented at the time but which Minnesota Public Radio later described as the “Austin Model.” The Austin team decided to focus not just on what Austin was, as the UT analysis observed, “but what it would become through UT. …In essence, Austin wooed MCC by building up the university's high-tech programs.”

This investment by the Austin team included the creation of 32 million-dollar chairs in high-tech related disciplines. "It was a risky strategy," Dr. Streetman later observed. "Some have likened it to throwing a long forward pass and then running downfield to catch your own pass."

We all know how it turned out. MCC selected Austin 25 years ago this month. More than any single event, the MCC selection transformed Austin’s economy and changed our destiny.

Twice more over the next five years, Austin, UT, the state and business leaders came together, first to recruit 3M, then to compete successfully for Sematech. Each time, the Austin team used the Austin Model of investing in a partnership with UT. Each time, Ben Streetman was a leader in the effort to create a better future not just for UT, but for Austin, too.

Dr. Streetman didn’t stop there, of course. He founded UT’s Microelectronics Center and became Dean of the Engineering School in 1996. He continued to teach students, and, as I personally observed, he continued his work helping Austin entrepreneurs create new companies and new opportunities.

Above all, this West Texas Baptist minister’s son who marched for civil rights in the late 1950’s, who changed thousands of students’ lives and who played a major leadership role in transforming Austin’s economy is also a gentleman and a really nice guy.

Now, Ben Streetman is retiring as Dean of the Engineering School.

From a grateful community, Dean Streetman, thank you.

 

Lessons from 25 years ago

Last month, I bought a new guitar. This one is acoustic (the neighbors will be grateful to know).

My son Ford is four years old, and he loves “playing” his guitar. Last Christmas, he asked Santa Claus for a guitar case, thumb picks and a capo. He dreams of being the next Jack Johnson.

I’ve been playing everyday, and the lessons I learned 25 years ago have come back faster than I expected. Earlier this week, Ford and I played “When the Saints Go Marching In” together, and we had a great time.

I started playing guitar again mainly because I want to teach Ford how to play and have something fun we can do together as he grows up. Also, I don’t want him to take up drums.

 

Download a printable version of this week's Crow's Nest (pdf file).