Mr. Lorry H. Dawkins – Principal (1948 – 1968) Lorry H. Dawkins was a graduate of South Carolina State (College) University, Mr. Dawkins was a star football player, a member of the University’s Athletic Hall of Fame,  and the person for whom their Track and Field Complex is named. In 1948 he became the principal of the South Carolina Area Trade School for Negroes.  He served in that role until the time of his death. In 1971 the South Carolina House of Representatives paid tribute to him with Dawkins Day.  

The South Carolina Area Trade School, often affectionately referred to as SCATS, offered courses in such fields as nutritional sciences (cooking and baking); business and secretarial sciences; building sciences (carpentry, painting, plumbing, brick masonry, electrical sciences); air-conditioning and refrigeration; barbering and cosmetology; auto mechanics, shoe repair, and seamstress sciences and tailoring. The school’s motto was “He Who Hath a Trade Hath an Estate.  College sports were also a very important part of the College’s fabric. The College boasted a football team, a men’s basketball team, and a women’s basketball team. In 1967 and 1968 the College baseball team went undefeated. In earlier years, the College also had a marching band. In 1956, the Edisto Residential Hall was erected.  In 1959, Building 900 was built (the current archive for the College). Buildings 200 and 300 (the Continuing Education and Plumbing buildings) were erected in 1960. In 1965, the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Residential Hall building was erected. The Engineering and Technology Building was erected in 1968.

• On March 1, 1948, the College opened with forty-two (42) students, six (6) faculty members, and six (6) trades of a campus composed of mostly mud with only two (2) buildings.
• 1948 – Principal Dawkins adopted the mantra “He who hath a trade hath an estate.”
• In 1949 the first ten students from the original forty-two (42) graduated, mostly in barbering.
• January 1950 – The majority of the counties in the state are represented in the student body with the majority being residents of Bamberg, Orangeburg, and Charleston counties. Two are residents of other states.  Although the majority of the current student body are World War II veterans, they were accepting male and female students as young as 17 with the option to live on campus or commute.
• March 1, 1950 – Dr. Benjamin E. Mays, president of Morehouse College, was the Founders Day speaker.  The them of his address was Equality of Work.” Dr. Mays is stated to have said that “The only time work may be inferior is when it is dishonest or illegitimate.”  He compared work to the organs of the body stating that “No organ of the boyd can claim superiority to another and so it is with work. All honest work is necessary for our way of life.”  Students were urged to “Master their work because happiness, self respect, the respect of others and freedom come not from oney but from work well done.” He closed by saying that “The love of humanity is the whole of morality.
• By January 1951, the College had grown to twenty-two (22) faculty and five (5) staff members.
• March 1951 – Dr. C. C. Spaulding, President of the North Carolina Life Insurance Company in Durham delivered the chief address for commencement.  In his address he stated, referring obviously to the fact that all of the buildings comprising the Area Trade School were of “frame construction, although fairly new,” that “I blame you, the parents for accepting wooden schools and all the fire hazards that go along with them. It is illegal to build wooden schools in North Carolina. I asked a white man once the direction to a Negro high school and he replied ‘Keep going until you come to the end of the pavement. It is a little beyond that.’” He continued “I tell you, we ought to stop letting people put our good schools across the railroad tracks and out beyond the pavement and we ought to stop accepting wooden schools.” He closed with, “I have always wanted the serenity to accept what cannot be changed and the courage to seek changes that are possible.  If people want you to stay in your place, be sure you retain a real place first.  Inequalities must be wiped out, and they will be – but not overnight. You must not be impatient. We are not in a parade, but a race and we have got to excel.”
• March 1951 – “Fifteen (15) trades were offered for boys and girls” and the enrollment had grown to “350 students, of which 35 are girls taking beauty culture and sewing.”
•  South Carolina native Korean War Veterans from Denmark, Allendale, Cheraw, Anderson, Greenwood, McCormick, Greelyville  and Charleston enroll.
• Under the principalship of Mr. Dawkins, the school consisted of six faculty members and forty-two students.
• The programs presented by the South Carolina Area Trade School under Mr. Dawkins’  leadership include barbering and cosmetology, brick masonry, carpentry, commercial sewing, cooking and baking, electricity, plumbing, radio repair, shoe repair and typing.
• In 1955, Mr. Dawkins led the way for a new fireproof women’s dormitory to be erected.
• On October 5, 1955, Mr. Dawkins established the Area Trade Choir, a singing ensemble that performed regionally, serving as ambassadors for the school. 
• Denmark Tech’s newspaper, the Trade Winds, was first published under Dawkins, bringing news to students and the community.
• In May 1949, he organized the school’s first Tri-State Trade and Industrial Tournament.
• The school also expanded its extracurricular activities by establishing the SCATS basketball and football teams.
• He established vocational rehabilitation programs for students with physical disabilities, helping them to reach their full potential despite challenges. 
• During this time, SCATS established one of the first all-female boarding schools in the State of South Carolina.