Bernie Blevins offered a lot of words of wisdom:
Always eat dessert first.
Pretend every day is your birthday.
Stand up for the little guy.
Don’t take anything too seriously.
And, especially:
Be generous. If you can help someone, you should.
BLEVINS took those words to heart, promising to leave a legacy that would last long after his death in 2022 at the age of 79.
He kept that promise with a gift of $7.2 million to Allen Community College. Half of the money is dedicated to Allen’s womens sports programs. The other half will create scholarships.
Exactly how the college will use the money has yet to be determined. There’s talk of making improvements to the new women’s softball field. Perhaps they’ll name the field after him.
The substantial gift came as only a small surprise. College officials learned Allen was named as a beneficiary of his estate not long after his death but only recently learned the amount. The gift more than doubles Allen’s endowment fund.
The donation, though, was decades in the making.
For more than 15 years, Blevins promised the college’s former endowment director, Cindy Adams, he would honor the college with a financial donation.
This isn’t his first. Years ago, Blevins and his business partner, Jim Vernon, established the BVD Scholarship, named for their business, BVD, Inc. The scholarship is awarded to a women’s softball player, with preference given to someone from Yates Center.
Blevins grew up in Woodson County and graduated from Allen. He attended college with John Masterson, Allen’s longtime president. The two were friends. Blevins continued his relationship with Allen and its representatives long after his time as a student.
“I was surprised but I also wasn’t,” Adams said about Blevins’ final gift. “He joined the Athletic Booster Club. I’d visit with him and he really had a love for the college. I’d say, ‘You need to step up and do something. You keep talking about it.’”
Blevins told her, “Yeah, I better do that.”
Despite his large, football-player’s frame and gregarious nature, Blevins kept many parts of his life private. Six of his loved ones gathered at Allen last week to talk about him and his gift to Allen for this article. They laughed and cried as they told stories about his life, his sense of adventure and his generosity.
Halfway through, Vernon’s daughter Katie Rogers interrupted a discussion about Blevins’ early life. He grew up poor near Toronto, and that formed his desire to help others. He never married and all of his immediate family preceded him in death.
