First Chancellor
Albin Owings Kuhn (1916-2010) was UMBC’s first president (then called chancellor). He began his career in higher education at the University of Maryland, College Park; after completing his bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral degrees there, he served as a professor of agronomy and chair of the Agronomy Department. In 1965 when Kuhn was serving as executive vice president of the University of Maryland, Dr. Elkins asked him to be the head of the University of Maryland Baltimore campus. Kuhn agreed on condition that he would also oversee the creation of the new campus in Baltimore County – what would be become UMBC. The initial planning, development and construction of the campus was led by Kuhn who remained the campus leader until 1971; he retired from the University of Maryland System in 1982.
Dr. Kuhn’s official portrait was made by Fabian Bachrach (1917-2010), a scion of the legendary family of photographers that stretched back four generations--more than 140 years. The first Bachrach studio was founded in Baltimore, and, at one time, there were studios in Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Richmond, and Washington, D.C.