Texas university provides faith-based polytechnic training

Only one Christian polytechnic university in America was established by a businessman. It is LeTourneau University in Longview, Texas. 

The institution was founded in 1946 by industrialist and evangelist Robert Gilmour LeTourneau…with more than a little help from his wife, Evelyn Patterson LeTourneau. 

R.G. LeTourneau made a fortune in developing and building earthmoving machinery and heavy-duty vehicles for use in agriculture, mining, logging, road and bridge building and offshore oil drilling. 

His equipment also had military applications that helped win World War II for the Allies. 

As a devout Christian, LeTourneau had ventured from Peoria, Ill., to Longview to consider a manufacturing site for his company’s next earthmoving equipment factory. 

While flying over a sprawling complex of a vacated Army hospital consisting of more than 200 buildings, Evelyn LeTourneau inquired about the facility. When told it was no longer in use, she suggested establishing a school to educate returning World War II veterans. 

They agreed to establish an institute where veterans could receive training in technical trades in a hands-on, Christ-centered educational environment. 

Today, LeTourneau University (LETU) is regarded as the premier Christian polytechnic university in the country, and it is observing its 75-year anniversary in 2021.

 

This story has a North Carolina connection. The LeTourneaus formed a friendship with the Rev. Billy Graham while he was a student at Wheaton (Ill.) College from 1940-43. He worked as a summer youth camp counselor at Camp Bethany in Winona Lake, Ind., a facility that was established by the LeTourneau family foundation. 

R.G. LeTourneau hosted Rev. Graham on several occasions to deliver spiritual talks to employees at company factories. 

In a 1953 letter from Graham to Evelyn LeTourneau, he wrote: “I love you and Mr. R.G. more than any two people in the world,” describing the LeTourneaus as “more like a father and mother to me.”

 

Rev. Graham liked to tell about R.G. LeTourneau receiving a job order from the U.S. government for a “very complicated machine to be used in lifting airplanes. No machine of this type had ever been designed. LeTourneau and his engineers could not come up with a plan. After some time, everyone was becoming tense and nervous.” 

“Finally, on a Wednesday night,” Rev. Graham said, “LeTourneau told his staff that he was going to a prayer meeting. The engineers were upset, because they had a deadline and the boss was deserting them.” 

“Mr. R.G. said, ‘I’ve got a deadline with God.’ He went to the prayer meeting, sang the hymns, and prayed. Afterward, as he was walking home, the design of the machine in complete detail came into his mind. He needed time with God and creative silence to bring it to the surface.” 

Graham continued: “Sometimes we try so hard to solve our problems without taking them to God, and we become agitated or depressed. It pleases God when we express to him our thanks and gratitude for his guidance and direction.”

 

“Our work was never meant to become the center of our lives. That place belongs only to God, but he did give man work to do and the Bible tells us, ‘Whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.’” Rev. Graham said: “There is dignity in work.” 

LeTourneau has an enrollment of about 3,175 students on its main campus in Longview who are reminded “Your Story Is Built Here.” The slogan is accompanied by a schematic drawing of a giant piece of earthmoving equipment designed by R.G. LeTourneau.