Documents

THE EVENING SUN

BALTIMORE,

MONDAY, AUGUST 13, 1973

Irving Blum

     Irving Blum must have had several dozen titles. In matters concerning investments, the wellbeing of Jewish persons and especially the betterment of deprived persons anywhere, organizations importuned him to join their board and counsel them on how best to proceed. The reason was, simply, Irv Blum cared about people and Irv Blum got things done. He could see through thickets of difficulties, he was never known to lose his cool, he had the knack as much as anyone else of sensing which way events were heading. So, even though he was a Baltimorean his whole life, his name was perennially included on letter heads far beyond.

     Even if only a cross-section of his activities is itemized, the obituary is over and scant idea has been given of the basic fact that Mr. Blum was one of the small group of influential private citizens of his city and his generation, and the more important fact that he wielded his influence wisely and generously. If you knew your way around in politics or real estate or finance or, particularly, philanthropy, you respected the name Irving Blum. More to the point, Iry Blum knew you.

     The problem of summing up his career with proper proportion for its varied aspects is nothing, of course, to the problem of those causes that would have expected to enjoy Mr. Blum's participation for years yet. His illness and death came far too soon. Not that poverty and malnutrition and lack of job skills and indifference among faiths and races were situations for which one man had a sovereign remedy --Iry Blum, with his instinct for the practical, would have laughed at such a notion. But persons held back by such handicaps could hope for better times, seeing so many objectives attained and programs carried through when Mr. Blum was enlisted in the effort. Other persons of good will and keen intelligence will now try to keep things moving, in memory of Irving Blum, but it'll be rough going.