Howard College

Howard County Junior College was established in Big Spring in 1945. 148 students began lessons in September 1946, in the hospital wing of the former Big Spring Army Air Force Bombardier School (later Webb Air Force Base).[1] Five years later the school moved to a 100-acre (40 ha) site in southeast Big Spring which came to include an administration-classroom-library building, a practical-arts building, a greenhouse, a music building, dormitories, and a 10,000-seat stadium.[1] The Lamesa campus was established in 1972 and the first class in San Angelo was held the following year.[2] The school's name changed to Howard College by 1974.[2] In August 1980 the school opened the Southwest Collegiate Institute for the Deaf on 57 acres (23 ha) of the former Webb Air Force Base, and it took over a nursing program in San Angelo the following year.[1]