Ed Blaine got a lot of satisfaction from helping people with disabilities find just the right job.
“Everyone has worth, and he wanted them to feel that,” said Ruth Blaine, 71, his wife of five years. “He wanted to help people know their worth, to fully participate in life. It would make him very happy to be remembered that way.”
Mr. Blaine died June 8 at age 69 of complications from multiple myeloma and renal cell carcinoma.
He had been in the construction business for many years, working as a project manager for companies such as Alberici in St. Louis. After his retirement, he worked for the Jefferson County Rescue Mission and for NextStep for Life as a job creator and job coach.
Mr. Blaine grew up in Alton, Ill., the son of a businessman who spent a lot of time teaching his boy.
“Ed was his dad’s shadow,” Ruth said. “When he was a little kid, his dad would take him to Springfield to tax auctions to buy properties. Also, Ed’s godfather was a judge and an attorney, and he learned a lot from him.
“So he learned business at his dad’s knee. He got his dad’s intellect and his business acumen.”
Mr. Blaine seemed to have an inborn knowledge of construction, aided by what his wife calls an “almost photographic” mind.
“He never forgot anything,” she said. “He didn’t go to college, but he just had this knack for business.”
Mr. Blaine was still in his teens when he entered the construction trade.
“He started building duplexes and apartment buildings,” Ruth said. “As an 18-year-old kid, he planned, numbered and cut all the pieces for the duplex in his garage. They got the foundation laid, and he hauled it all over there and put it together in two days.”
In the mid-1980s, Mr. Blaine got into project management.
“He was always able to bring a job in under budget and under time,” Ruth said. “He was a very good estimator; I think he was good at it partly because of his photographic mind. He really knew prices.”
Mr. Blaine’s meticulous eye for detail served him well in his hobby of woodworking.
“He made curio cabinets, mirrors, shadowboxes – and everything fits together just perfect,” Ruth said. “That was one of his enjoyments.”
He also liked playing golf, following Nascar racing and spending time in Branson.
Mr. Blaine was a man of faith, and his wife said he tried to live the tenets of the Bible.
“His company renovated a bunch of buildings at Fort Riley, Kansas,” she said. “When they were packing all their equipment to leave, there was a soldier there who had a need for transportation. Ed had this pickup truck that was, oh, about nine or 10 years old, and he handed the guy the title and the keys and said, ‘Here you go.’”
“That’s just the way he was. If he could help somebody, he would do it.”
One of the ways he found to help others was at the Jefferson County Rescue Mission.
“They used to have a men’s mission there, like a halfway house,” Ruth said. “The men would stay there, and he’d look after them on the weekends. He helped them get jobs, encourage them, counsel with them in the evenings. He had a pretty laid-back style; he was easy to talk to.”
After he retired from construction, Mr. Blaine took a job at NextStep for Life as a job creator.
“He decided he was getting bored, once he got caught up on his woodworking,” his wife said. “He wasn’t someone who could sit still for long.”
She said her husband was well suited to the task of helping match people with jobs.
“I think it was his gift of gab with people,” Ruth said. “He’d walk in anywhere and convince them that it was in their best interest to hire these people who just had some limitations. He was very thorough with coaching the people, too, and he made sure the companies were satisfied with the work.”
The first sign of Mr. Blaine’s illness was a broken bone in his foot, suffered while on his honeymoon in 2009. But it wasn’t until the following year he was diagnosed with
multiple myeloma and renal cell carcinoma.
“He responded to treatment, though, and was pretty stable until about two months ago,” his wife said. “Then he fractured a rib and was in a lot of pain.
“The myeloma weakens bones; you can just reach for something and the bones will crack. They were able to put a nerve block around it and he was able to have some peace.”
But the cancer was rapidly advancing, and the doctors simply ran out of options.
“We couldn’t find a chemo drug it would respond to without causing serious side effects like heart problems and blood clots,” Ruth said.
Mr. Blaine went into 24-hour hospice care and died just a few weeks later.
“We just kept him comfortable; he just kind of slept away,” Ruth said.
She said she knows her husband is in a better place now, and pain-free.
“We are going to miss him, but we are happy for him at the same time,” she said. “God is so awesome with His comfort. Ed was very sweet, a very loving man. He might look kind of gruff on the outside, but he was just an old marshmallow.”
“Life Story,” posted each Saturday on Leader Publications’ website, focuses on one individual’s impact on his or her community.