Severino L. "Bino" Koh, a founder and associate dean of the University of Maryland, Baltimore County College of Engineering, died Thursday of complications from heart surgery at Washington Hospital Center. The Columbia resident was 77.
"His leadership was significant because it reflected both his great enthusiasm and humanity," UMBC President Freeman A. Hrabowski III said of Dr. Koh, who was the College of Engineering's chief academic administrator from 1985 to 1991 and professor of mechanical engineering until his retirement in 2002.
"Bino was known as someone who cared deeply about people on campus, especially our students," Dr. Hrabowski added.
"Dr. Koh's contributions to UMBC will be remembered well into the future. His collegial approach and civility serve as an example for all of us," said Dr. Panos Charalambides, head of the department of mechanical engineering.
Dr. Koh, a native of Manila in the Philippines, earned a bachelor's degree in 1950 in meteorology from New York University and another in mechanical engineering from National University in Manila in 1952.
He moved to New York City in 1954, and earned a master's degree in engineering mechanics from Pennsylvania State University in 1957. He earned a doctorate in engineering sciences in 1962 from Purdue University.
Dr. Koh held several academic positions at the Johns Hopkins University and Penn State before joining the Purdue faculty in 1957 and later heading its engineering department.
From 1981 to 1983, he was department chairman and professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering at West Virginia University.
A year after his arrival at UMBC's Catonsville campus, the first nine students of the engineering school - five men and four women - graduated.
"This is historic. A lot of these people went through a lot of difficulties," Dr. Koh told The Evening Sun.
UMBC's engineering school was established only after a bitter political struggle between state education officials and several universities. Previously, engineering students were required to complete their senior year at the University of Maryland, College Park, Loyola College or Hopkins.
"He was able to serve a few different bosses in those early days, and he did it with ease. It was a unique challenge and most of what he accomplished he did with little or no resources," said James R. Milani Jr., director of administration at the College of Engineering.
