Karl Von Binns Sr., a faculty member in the department of hospitality and tourism management at the University of Maryland Eastern Shore, passed away on April 2 at the TidalHealth Peninsula Regional Hospital in Salisbury, Maryland. He was 69 years old.
A native of Tuskegee, Alabama, Binns, was a graduate of what was then Truett McConnell Junior College in Cleveland, Georgia. Standing 6-feet 7-inches tall, he was then recruited to played varsity basketball at the Georgia Institute of Technology. He was the first African American to play basketball for the university. After one year he transferred to Morris Brown College in Atlanta and earned a bachelor’s degree in hotel, restaurant, and institutional management.
After playing professional basketball in Europe, Binns returned to the United States and was a marketing representative for General Foods at Johns Hopkins University Hospital in Baltimore. While in Baltimore he earned an MBA at Morgan State University. He later would earn a Ph.D. in organizational leadership at the University of Maryland Eastern Shore.
Dr. Binns taught at Morris Brown College and at what is now Bethune Cookman-University in Daytona Beach, Florida, before joining the faculty at the University of Maryland Eastern Shore in 1998. He taught there for more than 22 years. In addition to teaching, Dr. Binns operated a State Farm Insurance agency was co-owner and operator of a Checkers restaurant.
Condolences to Dr. Karl Von Binns Sr.’s family, friends, and especially the Hawk Nation whose lives he changed.