Georgia Tech Athletics Donor Profile: Karl Barnes

Karl Barnes' nickname may be "PeeWee," but the former Georgia Tech football player is a giant when it comes to supporting his alma mater.

Over the past 30 years, Barnes has contributed in a number of ways to Georgia Tech, even though his path to the school was a circuitous one.

Barnes grew up in the northwest part of Atlanta and was part of the first integrated class at St. Pius X, where he played football for Coach George Maloof, a member of Tech's 1951 undefeated squad. After graduating in 1968, Barnes headed to California to a junior college to play football, but that decision changed quickly.

"I probably got caught up in the California Dreaming experience of the late 1960s," he joked. "That's what took me to the west coast. I got a little homesick, and I called George. He called Coach (Bud) Carson and got me a chance to walk-on." In 1967, Bud invited our St. Pius team to see Tech play Texas Christian University and we sat in the old south stands. Although my father was a Morehouse man and my mother graduated from Fisk University in Nashville, I recall Al Ciraldo announcing a Tech game in the early 1960s and two player's names I hear as if it were last Saturday -- halfback Chick Granning and quarterback Stan Gann. Visiting Georgia Tech was quite a unique experience for a little black kid that grew up in old south Atlanta. I had no context to frame what Georgia Tech was or its academic requirements. From my vantage point - "going to Georgia Tech was like going to the moon."

However, as life is sometimes stranger than fiction, athletics prepares you to get up after you fall. He was unprepared for the academic rigors, and his stay at Georgia Tech was short-lived. "I came in, got a 0.4, and I was right back out," he recalled. However, like many before and many afterwards, he told himself the famous last words upon leaving campus: "I shall return."

Barnes enrolled at DeKalb Community College, righted himself, completed an Associated Arts degree and earned his way back into Georgia Tech. He was back on the football team as a safety, ran track and was active in numerous organizations on campus, but he had a singular goal this time around.

"I enjoyed being an athlete (lettering in 1971-72), but once I got back into Tech, I majored in graduation," he said. "I was on the dean's list a few times after I figured out how to study and do all the right things."

Barnes graduated in 1973 with a degree in industrial management.

"The experience was extremely worthwhile and beneficial," he explained. "You learn a lot, especially about how things really work. You learn how to solve problems more than anything else. You learn how to systematically approach situations and come up with an acceptable, workable solution, as opposed to having a cookbook answer. I learned how to think critically and strategically"

As he entered the workforce, Barnes kept his close ties to the Georgia Tech's athletic programs. He assisted Carson, Bill Fulcher, Pepper Rodgers, Bill Curry, Bobby Cremins and Bobby Ross in their recruiting efforts over the years.

He also found time to earn a master's degree from the school of architecture in 1977, and then he later received his MBA from the Wharton School in Philadelphia. Barnes enjoyed a stellar 20-year career in the air transportation and beverage industries before moving to his current position on the staff of the Georgia Minority Supplier Development Council, which links corporations and minority businesses.

Also, he consults on numerous economic development, urban design and historic preservation projects. He's a member of the city of Atlanta's Zoning Review Board and president of his neighborhood association in the "Historic West End" area of Atlanta.

Over the years, Barnes has served on the boards of the Alumni Association, Georgia Tech Foundation and the Alexander-Tharpe Fund, as well as various committees and advisory boards on campus.

"All of those have been very fruitful experiences," he noted. "Just getting to be around the alumni and staff of this school is an incredible privilege. I've gotten to know a lot of wonderful people."

In addition to contributing to Roll Call for 32 consecutive years and the Alexander-Tharpe Fund 25 consecutive years (including the 1996 renovation of Alexander Memorial Coliseum), Barnes has recently become a Life Member of the Alexander-Tharpe Fund, affirming his commitment to the athletic programs at Georgia Tech. He and his wife Charlotte are fixtures at football and basketball games, and Barnes often makes the trip to the ACC Tournament and NCAA games.

"My reason for becoming a Life Member is the belief that collegiate athletics starts with the student-athlete," he said. "It's the belief that the student-athletes get not only a quality, but unique educational and living experience from a school with an international reputation. Georgia Tech, in a major city like Atlanta with four seasons, is the 'industry of the mind.' Georgia Tech afforded me the opportunity to "see the coliseums in Rome (Italy) and in Los Angeles, the towers in Paris (France), Amsterdam (Holland) and NYC, the beaches in Miami, Porte Prince (Haiti), Honolulu (Pearl Harbor) and Cape Town (S.A.), and the historical fabric in Montreal, Boston, San Juan and Johannesburg (S.A.). Although a lot of things have changed since I've been in school, the campus is much more student-focused and user friendly. Its feel is much more of a 'traditional' collegiate experience - more along the lines of the large land-grant state universities across the south. Georgia Tech is a unique global institution, playing major college sports in a major urban market; this is unique in the US and extremely different in this part of the southeast. Athletics, education, and the diversity of the student body, faculty, and academic research makes Georgia Tech a truly unique collegiate experience. Georgia Tech prepares you to journey and walk on the moon."