Governor John Connally was named commissioner general.įrom the beginning, HemisFair development was financed by a combination of public funding and private underwriting. Gaines as chief executive officer (September 1, 1965). But by the time the accreditation came (November 17, 1965), Dingwall had resigned (as of May 4, 1965) and been replaced by James M.

Dingwall, who had been vice president and general manager of the Century 21 Exposition in Seattle and was versed in the mechanics of acquiring international status for a world's fair from the Bureau of International Expositions in Paris, was named executive vice president of HemisFair. Two years later, in December 1964, Marshall Steves became president.Īspirations for the fair grew when Ewen C. Sinkin was the first president a prominent downtown construction magnate, Henry B. By 1962, when San Antonio Fair, Incorporated, a nonprofit organization, was formed, the aim was a 'Fair of the Americas.' William R. The idea was endorsed by San Antonio congressman Henry B. Harris, started discussing a fair to celebrate the cultural heritage shared by San Antonio and the nations of Latin America-a 'Hemis-Fair,' as Harris then called it. The fair, which commemorated the 250th anniversary of the founding of San Antonio, had its beginnings in 1959, when local business leaders, inspired by merchant Jerome K. HemisFair '68, held in San Antonio from April 6 through October 6, 1968, was the first officially designated international exposition in the Southwestern United States.

Corduroy 1968