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Old Friend and Fellow Adventure Capitalist Dies: 

Gordon Binns 

Here is the obituary from the Richmond Times-Dispatch, April 5, 2002:

Gordon Binns Jr. dies -- advised VRS 

BY JEFF E. SCHAPIRO (Richmond) TIMES-DISPATCH STAFF WRITER

W. Gordon Binns Jr., a Richmond native who ran the General Motors pension fund before returning to his hometown as chief investment adviser to the Virginia Retirement System, died yesterday after a brief illness. He was 72.

Mr. Binns died at Virginia Commonwealth University's Medical College of Virginia Hospitals.

Born on June 8, 1929, Mr. Binns grew up on West Franklin Street, the son of a teacher and the treasurer of a printing company. But it was in New York that he made his reputation in finance, becoming head of the General Motors Investment Management Corp., the pension arm of the giant automobile maker.

Mr. Binns, who was known as Gordon, graduated from Thomas Jefferson High School and the College of William and Mary, where he studied economics. Elected to Phi Beta Kappa at William and Mary, Mr. Binns also earned graduate degrees at New York University and Harvard University. Though finance was his discipline, Mr. Binns comported himself like an academic, right down to his baggy, understated suits and shock of wiry, white hair.

An avid bibliophile, Mr. Binns specialized in travel books. His collection numbered in the thousands, filling a three-bedroom apartment here that he acquired just to store the volumes he amassed during more than 50 years. Except for a year with the former Chase Bank, Mr. Binns spent his four-decade-long career with General Motors, commuting to Manhattan from Bronxville, a leafy suburb evocative of sections of Richmond's West End, where he made his home after his retirement from GM in 1994. At GM, Mr. Binns supervised one of the nation's largest retirement funds, overseeing $50 billion in investments.

Mr. Binns was a trustee of the Maymont Foundation and the Medical College of Virginia Foundation. He was a director of the Christian Children's Fund.

A recovering alcoholic, Mr. Binns was active until his death in Alcoholics Anonymous. He was a director of the National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence.

On his departure from GM, Mr. Binns joined the investment advisory committee of the $36 billion Virginia Retirement System. As head of the VRS investment committee, Mr. Binns recommended the fund expand its holdings in the stock market, helping position the system to capture the benefits of the historic run-up on Wall Street. He left the VRS in 1998.