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UH Business Manager (McElhinney) Records

 Collection
Identifier: 1985-001

The Business Manager Records of C. F. McElhinney are the records McElhinney generated during his tenure at the University of Houston (1945-1973). The collection has been arranged into six series: Board of Regents, Staff Conference Meetings, Legislative Activities, Building Files, President's Office, and the Houston College for Negroes. The materials in the collection date from 1945-1974, with the bulk of the materials dating from the 1960s and 1970s. Included in the collection are university-related correspondence, minutes, agendas, reports, financial reports, bids, and contracts. There are no photographs or personal papers in the collection.

Key correspondents in the collection include C. F. McElhinney, Philip Hoffman, Patrick J. Nicholson, E. E. Oberholtzer, W. W. Kemmerer, and Clanton W. Williams.

The materials follow the organization in which McElhinney left them, with some minor rearrangement within folders to follow chronological order. All folder titles use the headings provided by McElhinney.

Materials in the collection document the administrative activities of the University, including Camp Wheeler, construction on the Houston College for Negroes campus (now Texas Southern University), the legislative activities of the University during its campaign for state support in the 1960s, the development of KUHT Channel 8 and KUHF, the campus radio station.

Oversized materials, including maps of campus from the 1960s, blueprints and related architectural materials on the UH Central Power Plant, and a campus map of the utility distribution system have been removed from the collection for preservation purposes. Please ask an Archives staff member for assistance regarding oversize materials.

Dates

  • 1945-1973

Creator

Conditions Governing Access

Open for research.

Conditions Governing Use

Special Collections owns the physical items in our collections, but copyright normally belongs to the creator of the materials or their heirs. The researcher has full responsibility for determining copyright status, obtaining permission to publish from copyright holders, and abiding by current copyright laws when publishing or displaying copies of Special Collections material in print or electronic form. For more information, consult the appropriate librarian. Reproduction decisions will be made by Special Collections staff on a case-by-case basis.

Extent

18.00 linear feet

Biographical Information

Charles Flemming McElhinney (commonly known as C. F. McElhinney or "Mr. Mac") was born on September 19, 1907, in Truro, Nova Scotia. He received a bachelor's degree from Acadia University in 1926 at the age of eighteen and taught in public schools in Canada before continuing his graduate studies. He received a master of arts degree from Columbia University in 1928.

Mr. McElhinney taught in the public school systems in Chester Basin and Halifax, Nova Scotia before moving to the United States. He was an assistant professor at the State Teachers College in Troy, Alabama from 1930-1931 and at the Mississippi State College for Women from 1931-1934. He moved to Houston in 1934, taking the position of assistant director of curriculum and research for the Houston Independent Schools District from 1934-1939. Mr. McElhinney then became the director of research from 1939-1945, when he became the business manager for the University of Houston, which until 1945 had been operated by the Houston Independent School District. During this time he also served as a staff assistant to Mr. E. E. Oberholtzer, the president of the University.

From 1945 until his retirement in 1973, Mr. McElhinney served as the business manager of the University. During this time, he was given the position of vice-president and business manager from 1950-1962, and was senior vice president for finance and treasurer from 1962-1973. He also served as interim president of the University from 1953-1954.

During Mr. McElhinney's years at the University, he also served as a faculty member in the department of education, and as a sponsor of several student activities and programs. Additionally he was the coach of the first athletic team fielded by the University (ice hockey) in 1934 while the University was still known as the Houston Junior College.

When Mr. McElhinney retired in 1973 (at the end of the fiscal year), the Board of Regents renamed the Graduate Studies building in honor of McElhinney's decades of service to the University.

Acquisition Information

Transfer

Processing Information

Original by Andrea Bean Hough, June 1997.

Additional by Bobby Marlin, 2003.

Title
Guide to the UH Business Manager (McElhinney) Records
Author
Andrea Bean Hough, Bobby Marlin
Language of description
English
Script of description
Latin

Repository Details

Part of the University of Houston Libraries Special Collections Repository

Contact:
University of Houston Libraries Special Collections
MD Anderson Library
4333 University Drive
Houston TX 77204-2000 USA
713-743-9750