Blume receives honor from local Boy Scouts

May 22—ANDERSON — His office may be full of awards and accomplishments, but Bob Blume is no stranger to failure.

Starting a successful ministry/business, being a Sagamore of the Wabash and now the Madison County Distinguished Citizen Award at one time seemed out of reach for Bob Blume.

Like the formerly incarcerated individuals he serves via Man4Man Ministries, Blume found himself in need of a second chance.

After nearly flunking his first semester at Taylor University, he began to doubt his potential. However, there was someone who never doubted him, Bob Smith, who was a professor at Taylor.

Smith suggested he take a test to figure out his strengths, which the professor then used to Blume's advantage.

Smith asked Blume to go with him to Greenville College in Illinois, where Blume kept a 3.5 GPA.

"No one had tapped my potential before. He guided and helped. He challenged me to go to new heights," Blume said.

Blume later went back to Taylor where he served as a Tennis coach for many years. He also ran the NAIA national tennis tournament for 13 years.

With those triumphs came major losses, most notably his first wife, Pat, who passed away about 44 years ago.

Within the hour of his wife's death, Kathy, the woman who brought them together, was abandoned by her husband, Blume's former roommate.

"Her (Kathy's) son said, 'You don't have to pray for your friend in Indiana anymore, she died today. ... God told me,'" he said, telling the story.

"She called me and I said, 'yeah, she just died.'"

After eight months of friendship, they decided to take their relationship in a romantic direction. The two were wed around 1982, more than four decades ago.

When talking about Kathy, Blume repeatedly says, "I've got a great wife."

Thanks to her, Christ and others, Blume has been able to make an impact both at home and nationally.

In 1992, he started serving as an event coordinator for Promise Keepers, a national Christian conference for men.

At that time, Blume didn't know anything about being an event coordinator, however, that didn't stop him from excelling at it.

He organized an estimated 100 stadium events for Promise Keepers. He also organized a prayer event at the National Mall in Washington D.C. in 1997 which more than a million attended.

In 1993, Blume founded Man4Man, a ministry/business by which he gives former felons a chance to find work and a new life in Christ.

Bob was able to minister new life to others because someone did it for him back in February 1957 when he was a senior at Warren Central High School

"I was making fun of the Youth For Christ guy that came to the school," he recalled. "I was in the locker room at Hinkle Fieldhouse, he came and sat down next to me. ... He said, 'Can I pray for you?' I said, 'Make it quick.'"

Blume later overheard the man talking about Christ to someone else and decided to become a follower of Christ that day.

"My whole life changed then."

Blume's service to Christ and his community landed him the 2024 Madison County Distinguished Citizen Award from the Crossroads of America Council.

The award is given to folks who are nominated for their standout service to and impact on their community, according to Everett Young, eastern divisions manager for the Crossroads of America Council, the organization overseeing the Boy Scouts program in Central Indiana.

He is the 32nd person to receive this award.

The 85-year-old is grateful for the award and shows no signs of stopping. Tuesday morning, Blume and the guys from Man4Man gathered in the meeting room before going off to their respective jobs.

Some of the men work for Man4Man, which provides moving, lawn care and other services.

About four teams were dispatched for jobs all over Central Indiana, including Noblesville.

These services do not come without financial sacrifice on Blume's part. The organization doesn't make a huge profit, just enough to get by, according to Blume.

Nevertheless, he's proud to be a loving, fatherly presence for other men, including Steve Menifee, who said Blume taught him how to be a loving husband.

"I come from a background of dominance. My father, he wore the dominance on his shoulder," Menifee said.

"It helped me balance out my wife's place in the relationship. It (Blume's tutelage) helped me get out of that mindset that, 'I run everything.'"

Blume is proud of Menifee and those who surround him, saying they protect and love him well.

Follow Caleb Amick on Twitter @AmickCaleb. Contact him at caleb.amick@heraldbulletin.com or 765-648-4254.