Coakley & Williams-A National Firm With a Local Heart

November 11, 2007-Greenbelt, MD-Coakley & Williams Hotel Management Company is a nationally recognized, yet local corporation which hasn’t lost touch with what really matters: giving back to the community. In 2005, The Maryland School for the Blind was gifted The Westminster Inn, a full service inn that also housed two businesses. Gary Williams, President of Coakley & Williams, had been praying for a philanthropic cause to present itself to him personally and professionally. At this exact same time, Mark Althoff, Director of Development at The Maryland School for the Blind (MSB), cold called Mr. Williams to propose a partnership of Coakley and Williams on the Westminster Inn project. This was just the opportunity Mr. Williams had hoped for.


From 2005 through 2007, Coakley & Williams provided pro-bono hotel management services to The Maryland School for the Blind for the Westminster Inn. The property, located in Westminster, MD, was gifted to the School in 2005. Coakley & Williams assumed responsibility for operational oversight, sales and marketing, HR, technical support, maintenance direction, and accounting and payroll of the property.

In August 2007, MSB Properties, LLC, the governing board for the Inn, sold the Westminster Inn to the YMCA. Although MSB no longer required hotel management services, Coakley & Williams did not retract their commitment to the school or its students. As Chairman of the Maryland Hotel and Lodging Association, Gary Williams has been a catalyst for connecting MSB students with careers in the hotel and lodging industry. In April 2007, Coakley and Williams offered MSB student Preston Pope, a job at Baltimore’s Tremont Hotel. “At school in Career Education, we learned how to take off the bedsheets and take out the trash from the dorm rooms. I liked doing that, so I wanted to work in a hotel,” said Pope. The partnership of Coakley and Williams and the Maryland School for the Blind continues to be a serendipitous and heartwarming account.

Coakley & Williams Hotel Management Company is a privately owned firm with roots in the Washington Metropolitan region dating back to 1961. The firm is headquartered in Greenbelt, Maryland and maintains no other corporate offices. The firm’s diversified portfolio consists of various hotel properties along the eastern seaboard in Maryland, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Virginia, New York, Vermont, Washington, DC, and Florida.
Located in the northeast corner of Baltimore, The Maryland School for the Blind (MSB) is a private, nonprofit school dedicated to educating children and youth from infancy to age 21 who are blind, visually impaired, and multiply disabled. Each year, the school serves more than 800 students throughout the state. In addition to the traditional classroom education, MSB offers comprehensive services including; residential, braille and low-vision instruction, travel training, transition, health and therapy services, career education, and outreach.
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