Narrator> Next on ETV, the story of a textile family and their extraordinary relationship with their hometown.

For more than a century, the Self family and Greenwood have been synonymous.

Together, they have created a vibrant future from a legacy born in the Cotton Mills.

♪ ♪ The once powerful textile industry of South Carolina has been reduced to a handful of mills still in operation.

For decades, one by one, the mills have fallen silent.

The remains of what was once the lifeblood of the state's economy are today mostly abandoned buildings and empty parking lots.

But in Greenwood, South Carolina, four generations of one textile family would not abandon their neighbors.

The founder of Greenwood Mills, James Cuthbert Self, created a new standard for how business and communities can thrive, even in the worst of times.

♪ The story of today's Greenwood began at the turn of the last century.

A young James C. Self entered the business world as a banker, working as a cashier for the Bank of Greenwood.

In 1908, he was elected president and treasurer of the failing Greenwood Cotton Mill.

He was paid 1,800 dollars a year.

He continued working at both the banking business and the textile business until 1916 when he followed the advice of tobacco magnate James B. Duke.

> Mr.

Self was struggling along working for the Bank of Greenwood and happened to know James B. Duke, and Mr.

Duke is supposed to have said to his friend Jim, "Jim, you'll never get anywhere lending $50 on a blind mule."

Narrator> Self's wise business practices, good management, and commitment to quality became the hallmarks of Greenwood Mills, setting it apart from many other textile companies.

> One time my father said-- he was going on vacation-- "Mr.

Self wants to buy a piece of land.

If the listing comes in, you take it down to him immediately."

So I did, and he was one of the most charming men you ever saw, made me feel like I was the biggest thing in Greenwood.

So I gave him the plat, showed him the property, told him the price.

And he said, "Well, now, boy, do you think it's worth that?"

I said, "Oh, yes, sir, it's worth that."

"Well, why should I buy something if I have to pay what it's worth?"

Well, you know, I'm still thinking about it.

I haven't answered that question yet!

Narrator> Under Self's leadership, Greenwood Mills grew to become one of the state's leading textile companies.

Greenwood became a textile town, with nearly 8,000 people working in the mills.

The first monuments to Self's dedication to his employees are the mill villages he built for them, row upon row of brick homes with hardwood floors that remain today, long after most of the mills shut down.

♪ > Well, he was innovative in just about every way he was.

I don't know whether you had a chance to ride around Greenwood or not, but back in the early days, before we had good transportation, we had mill villages.

And the mill villages are where people lived because, without good automobiles and good roads, they had to live close to their work.

And if you look at the houses that made up the mill village, which now have been sold to the employees, you'll see they have brick houses and they were real fine compared to some of the other housing that was in existence at that time.

And he did that because, by doing that, he got good people to come want to work there.

He got low maintenance for the costs.

'Cause they were brick, he didn't have to paint the place.

And the roof, had permanent roofs on 'em.

He just had a lot of vision to how to do things the best way.

Narrator> The mill villages were just the beginning of Self's contributions to the people who worked for him and the town that he lived in.

A tornado that ripped through Greenwood in 1944 prompted him to make a major contribution to the community.

It would be the first of many large investments in Greenwood.

Jim Self> In the early '40s while I was in the Army, a tornado came through Greenwood and really damaged the existing hospital, and that was the catalyst that my father announced his intention to build a new hospital in Greenwood.

Of course that was during the war.

He had to wait till after the war and after he got it planned, but it was started in the late '40s and finished in the early '50s.

Narrator> The new hospital was the first major gift of the Self Family Foundation that was established for the benefit of the community.

The Foundation, as well as Greenwood Mills, grew and prospered over the next few decades.

Jim Self succeeded his father at the helm of Greenwood Mills in 1955.

Under his leadership, the enterprise begun by his father grew to 20 plants with a payroll of 108 million dollars at its peak in 1981.

♪ With all this financial success, the family became even more committed to Greenwood and its people.

Jim Self and the next two generations of the family carried forward the tradition of giving back to the community.

More than 60 million dollars in grants have been awarded, most of them in Greenwood.

Curry> I never heard him say, "I love Greenwood," like a lot of people say and like I've said.

He just showed us.

He did things for Greenwood, like helping us get new industry, getting the railroad tracks out-- and that was a 30-year undertaking, never would have done it without him.

Getting Wesley Commons, a retirement home, built here.

That was one of his hobbies.

And one of the main things was supporting the Greenwood Genetic Center, which never would have been here without him.

So those things are outstanding, and they've made us better than most towns of our size.

> So my whole life, growing up and all, was within the textile family, and fortunate enough, I found out that there was a man called Jim Self.

People loved him... loved him.

When I tell people this, they hardly believe it.

My mother would put out all of our dirty clothes on Tuesday morning.

They'd come by, pick 'em up, go wash 'em, bring 'em back.

Had a clothesline in the back Mr.

Self had put up to hang your clothes on.

If a light went out in the kitchen, or anywhere, go down to the mill office and they'd give you one, or call and they'd come put one in.

And believe it or not, he even planted the grass for the lawns and cut 'em for 'em.

The people loved him to death, and, uh... and as I have gotten old and, especially, getting into politics, I realized as I got older what Mr.

Self and the textile mill meant to Greenwood County, as a matter of fact, all the county.

> Where does the Self family end and the town begin?

It's really very, very tied up.

They're tied up with each other, and they have been from the very first.

You have banking, textiles, and now... all the other things they do.

And it really does seem to be an altruistic attitude toward community, and I'm as cynical as the next person.

You know, I don't know if I would do that.

But I certainly do recognize it and admire it when I see it in somebody else.

They really do care.

Narrator> Self's management of the Greenwood Mills was not unlike that of his father.

He was innovative and adept at foreseeing trends in the industry.

And in his father's tradition, he, too, had an abiding interest not only in the textile business, but the people who worked in it.

> Mr.

Self had a very personal relationship with the community and the people that worked in the mill.

He was always the same.

A lot of times when you would see him, you might not think he was Mr.

Self because he was such a down-to-earth individual.

Many times when they had the mills operating, he would get up early on Saturday morning and walk through those plants to see the condition they were in.

He would walk through during the week to meet the employees.

He knew most of the employees by name and everything, and he would just carry on a casual conversation with them, you know, and let them know "if there is any problems or anything I can do, just let me know."

Narrator> Greenwood Mills, like all other U.S.

textile companies, began to suffer under the burden of textile imports in the 1960s.

Early on, Jim Self saw that his community would have to look to other industries to keep people employed.

In an unprecedented move, he worked with Greenwood to bring in new diverse industry.

♪ > Knowing Mr.

Self and the Self family, old Mr.

Self had founded the Greenwood Mills, and he was just an expert at everything he went at.

He just really got all the facts, and he knew what was going on all the time, and I think he could see the trend of the textile industry back in the early '60s.

> My grandfather's philosophy was to plow back into the community that's been good to him and to the company, and my father continued that because he realized that economic development was gonna happen.

If it's gonna happen, make it the best it can be because you live in the community and everybody benefits.

We benefit in the long run because the community will grow and prosper.

Drummond> Back then, I think he saw ahead of time we ought to do more than just textiles.

And the Self family was-- we had other families in Greenwood-- as I said, the Boykin-Currys-- a lot of 'em working together, but the Self family brought 'em all together... for a different Greenwood and a different South Carolina, really.

> Mr.

Self was a member of the State Development Board under Governor Hollings, the very first State Development Board, and one day I had an opportunity, and I asked him why he did this.

And he said he did it for the good of the people of Greenwood, as well as the people of the state of South Carolina.

He thought it was important to get good industry, and he said another interesting thing, that when we brought in industry, if there was good industry, it just made us become better managers in order to compete.

♪ Narrator> The early 1980s brought an unrelenting onslaught of textile imports, hitting Greenwood Mills and the entire domestic textile industry hard.

The result was the beginning of seemingly unending cutbacks and shutdowns at mills across the South.

But through it all, the Self family remained firmly committed to the people of Greenwood.

> If the truth be known, the Selfs could probably have sold out years ago, and it would have been to the benefit of the family.

But they felt that they had an obligation to the community to keep as many people employed as possible.

So even though the last five or six years have been distressing to watch, the textile industry falling into its state of malaise, the Selfs tried to keep people working as long as possible.

And in some ways, I don't believe they get the credit for that, but, again, that's just an example of how deeply rooted in the community and how committed they are to the community.

> Our government has used the textile industry as a bargaining chip in trade negotiations because the industry does employ a lot of people, and that's something all these developing countries want, is industry that they can put their people to work.

And so our government, through its trade practices, has sacrificed our industry.

Whaley> When we closed plants, or started closing plants, it was the saddest day I believe I've ever seen for Mr.

Self.

It really upset him to have to start closing the facilities.

The first one was in Joanna, and then subsequently we closed many others.

They always bothered him a lot.

Jay Self> At the end of the day, though, we have to make a profit, and so there's only so much you can give back, but the, uh-- we have, uh-- you know, when we reorganized ourselves, we had plants all over, and we said, "Okay, where is the best place to keep going?"

And that was here, and focus on the plants right here in Greenwood where it all started.

Wideman> You know, the Selfs made their money in Greenwood, and they've kept their money, by and large, in Greenwood.

Although, the development company, Greenwood Development, of course is invested heavily in the development of Hilton Head, but they've kept their money in Greenwood and kept their money in South Carolina.

And their future is dependent on Greenwood's future and South Carolina's future.

Therefore, they have a stake in seeing this community move forward.

I'm not sure that that's always the case with the old textile families, again, keeping their money in the communities that help make that money.

Narrator> Throughout the downturns in the textile business, the Self family kept the Foundation going, continuing to invest in the community.

Their next venture was a major step in their support of medical care, as they helped create a world-class genetics research center.

The facility has become a leader in research in birth defects and genetic diseases.

Curry> Roger Stevenson was a classmate of my son's at Furman, and he used to come visit us on the weekend, and he told me he was going to be a pediatrician.

I said, "Well, Roger, when you get to be a pediatrician, come to Greenwood.

We don't have but one, and we need another."

Well, seven years later, he walked in my office and said, "I'm here to practice."

I said, "Well, sit down.

We'll get you a house, we'll get you an office, get you fixed up."

"Well, I want to talk to you about something else."

So he talked to me about this genetics center.

I thought that was the craziest thing I ever heard.

I said, "Let me think about it, and I'll see you in the morning."

So the next morning, I called Jim, and I said, "Have you got 15 minutes to waste?"

"Well, what you mean?"

"I got a young fellow; I want you to listen to his dream."

"Bring him on up."

So he and I went up and sat down with Jim in the conference room, and after about 15 minutes, I saw they don't need me anymore.

I got up and left.

> The first meeting that we had with Mr.

Self was really a very interesting meeting.

It was sort of a benchmark in my professional life.

Mr.

Curry had warned me before-- or at least had told me before we went into the meeting-- that if Mr.

Self stayed there the entire meeting, then probably very good things would come from the meeting.

But I sort of had to face a decision based on that.

I was concerned that Mr.

Self might stand up at any moment and walk out, and my decision was basically what am I gonna do for the rest of my life if that happens.

So the meeting actually went quite successfully.

Mr.

Self received it and made very positive comments, so coming out of the meeting, we had a good feeling that the Greenwood Genetic Center would develop and that it could bring good things to this region and to South Carolina.

The Greenwood Genetic Center is clearly a trust of the state.

Even though Mr.

Self invested heavily and wanted to have the center here in Greenwood, it's clear from the beginning that he realized the center would have a statewide mission, and he expected us to work throughout the state, not only in Greenwood, and that's the history of what we've done.

We have two other satellite offices other than the home base here, and we have field workers in every region of the state, from the coast to the mountains, and of our 150 or so employees, probably a fourth of them are located elsewhere in South Carolina, other than on the Greenwood campus.

Narrator> By the 1990s, Greenwood, with the support of the Self family and the foundation, had created a vibrant community that captured the interest of a variety of industries.

Greenwood was making the transition from textiles to high-tech at an increasingly faster pace.

The crowning achievement of their industrial recruitment came when Fujifilm made its largest investment in North America in Greenwood.

♪ > Fuji came to Greenwood-- I think they'll tell you this story--for a couple of reasons.

Everybody's got the water and the sewer and the infrastructure and the property and that sort of thing.

I think what impressed Fuji was the reception, was the people in the community that hosted them when they visited, the quality of life.

They liked the beauty of the area.

I think, you talk with somebody from Fuji, they'll say quality of life, the environment, the beauty, and the acceptance and the reception that they received to come in the community.

> The things I talk about a lot with our board members and our county council, how critical it is to have owners that live in this area or are active in the area.

A great example of what some of those owners could be, would be like a Fuji, where the folks from Japan come over here on a quarterly basis.

They are actively involved.

When they had a line where their business line was going downhill, they retooled, brought in new research, and kept people working out there.

We had an announcement that it would be very similar to what you might have seen back in the '60s or '70s where you had stuff move offshore, and they've made a major investment, over $100-million-worth of investment and didn't fire one person.

That was very similar to the days back in the '60s and the '70s with the mills.

And that attitude prevails with all of our industry, and those guys have set that standard for us.

> Suppose he would have been against bringing other industries in and on their toes and the people coming in realize this.

"Hey, we're not going there.

They're not gonna accept us.

It's that textile town.

We're not going there.

We're not welcome."

If we would not have attracted those industries and if Self would have been against it and they just said, "Hey, we made ours; we're gonna close up everything and go," Greenwood would be on the verge of a ghost town.

Bornemann> Where we've been so fortunate is that we've had, um... people like Jim Self who have realized that the wealth gained in an upbeat textiles economy of back 30 years ago may not be what was gonna last forever.

Fowler> Well, let me give you a real personal story.

Mr.

Self, Mat Self, who runs their development company over there right now-- and I could actually give you about three of these, just here recently in the last six months where we've had projects come in and related to them in some way, shape, or form, whether it be textiles or whether it be in development.

I had a project in 98 degrees heat.

We had room enough to take everybody--we had two cars, we had one truck and one car-- room enough to take these folks back way in on the piece of property to show them the area and show them where the building's gonna lay out, but we also had to wait on some maps to be delivered.

So who volunteered to wait and stand out in the sun, 98 degrees heat, and wait on those maps and then take those down there to us?

It was Mat, because, in particular, we needed to be down there with the folks to show 'em where the sewer lines and everything were going in, and he was right there with us.

Now, people that don't believe that he's got a dedication and the Selfs don't have a dedication to making this community thrive and go forward, then they're sadly mistaken.

Bornemann> What we've seen is that the leadership of new businesses coming into town respect so much that old, long-term Greenwood leadership and management style and the things that helped them assimilate into the community.

It's just smart business for these people to pick up on that, and learning from the Mat Selfs or the Jim Selfs or learning from the long-term business leadership in the community is just a very, very smart thing for them to do.

Narrator> The people of Greenwood and the people of the Self family have set a high standard for their future: economic success, but not at the cost of quality of life.

Their future together has been forged by their unique relationship, built on the premise of helping each other.

Together, they have created a legacy for new industries, new people, and new generations, a legacy marked by not only physical structures, but by an enlightened vision for Greenwood's future.

Wideman> What we see is how do we help diversify Greenwood County's economy?

How do we help Greenwood be successful as a community moving into the future?

How do we help make that transition from a traditionally manufacturing-based economy more towards a knowledge economy?

And, of course, Jim Self had the great vision to invest in the Greenwood Genetic Center, where later the research piece of that developed into the J.C.

Self Research Institute for Human Genetics that is doing world-class research around the causes of mental retardation and birth defects in children.

We hope to use the intellectual capital that's being developed there to help Greenwood make that transition into a knowledge-based economy.

♪ Narrator> The most recent project of the Self Foundation is to revitalize downtown Greenwood, starting with an arts and cultural district.

This 3.5-million dollar project is well underway, with a grant of 1.7 million dollars from the Foundation.

It includes renovation of an historic federal building, a theater, and museum.

This next step for the foundation in Greenwood is part of the improvement of overall quality of life for residents and newcomers.

♪ > Greenwood is, you know, for a retirement community, it has a lot of advantages for people.

For people who want to work in technology, Greenwood is gonna be the leading edge in a lot of areas in technology with the genetics center and other opportunities that are coming.

Small town atmosphere, local schools, everybody knows each other, and very friendly people, and gonna be very interesting over the next two decades to see Greenwood evolve to even a bigger urban area but still retaining the small-town atmosphere.

> When you talk about what's special about Greenwood, I guess what first comes to mind is people that haven't been here in a while, people that used to live here and returned, or people that are visiting, they really find kind of a small-town culture, the old, southern small town where people know one another, people are courteous, people have all of the respect for one another, but it's still a vibrant place.

It's bustling; it's growing.

We've got a lot of things going on in the community, and I'd look at it as sort of like a fun community.

It hasn't got the traffic.

It hasn't got the safety problems that you might encounter in a bigger town.

But it's large enough and it's got enough attractions and things to do here that it's a fun place to live.

Narrator> What Greenwood is and what it will become will always be linked to the legacy of the Self family.

That legacy has its roots in the quiet, simple principle held by the man who began it all, James C. Self.

♪ > Well, I think he'd been quoted several times, saying that he didn't think much of a man that didn't put back more into a community than he got out of it.

I think that says it in a nutshell.

♪ ♪