Robert D. Blinn

1933 - 2019

(News story) BOWLING GREEN - Robert D. Blinn, a retired Owens Corning executive who helped create the company's information system and was an Army veteran and a distinguished community volunteer, died Sunday in assisted living at Brookdale Bowling Green. He was 85.

He had Alzheimer's disease, said his daughter, Julie Metzger.

Mr. Blinn retired in 1992 as Owens Corning's director of information systems after 35 years with the company.

Over the years he had risen through the ranks from programmer, the position to which he was assigned in 1959 after an initial two years there as an accountant, he wrote in his own obituary.

"He basically managed a group of programmers who helped put the company information system together. He was the facilitator," said his son, Jon Blinn.

An Eagle Scout, Mr. Blinn also had volunteered for 38 years as an adult leader in the Boy Scouts of America Toledo Area Council at the troop and district levels and was a past district chairman for the organization's Turkeyfoot District and the Wood District.

In 1984 the Boy Scouts gave him the Silver Beaver distinguished service award.

In addition he coached Little League baseball for seven years and girls softball for six years for Keyser Elementary School in Toledo, from the mid-1960s through 1977.

Mr. Blinn had also served on the boards of the Bowling Green School Foundation, Wood Lane Industries, Bowling Green Downtown Foundation, and Wheeled Meals.

"Dad was very generous with his time for others. ... He did a lot of volunteer work," his son said.

In 2011 the Bowling Green Chamber of Commerce honored Mr. Blinn and his wife, Carla Blinn, with the annual Male and Female Outstanding Citizen awards.

Mr. Blinn and his wife, the former Carla Hoke, were married in 1985; she preceded him in death in 2011. He previously was married to Patricia Cleland; they married in 1956 and later divorced.

Born July 14, 1933, in Glens Falls, N.Y., to Elizabeth and Morse Blinn, Mr. Blinn was raised in neighboring Hudson Falls, where he graduated high school in 1950. He later continued his education at what is now Bryant University in Smithfield, R.I.

In 1953 he joined the Army, with which he served in Germany until his honorable discharge as a corporal in 1955.

He hired on with Owens Corning at its Ashton, R.I., plant after graduating Bryant in 1957. He was transferred later that year to corporate headquarters in Toledo, where he joined the finance department.

In his free time he enjoyed golfing, playing poker with friends, and traveling with his wife, Carla, to Bowling Green sporting events.

Surviving are his sons, Jon and Tim Blinn; daughter, Julie Metzger; sisters, Peg Doyle, Gail Simione, Judy Comar, Susan Simione, Penny Clary, Pat Luciano, Jean Wicks, and Nancy Bates; brother Peter Blinn, and five grandchildren.

Visitation will begin at 4 p.m. Friday at Dunn Funeral Home, 408 W. Wooster St., Bowling Green. Funeral services will begin at 11 a.m. Saturday at St. Mark's Lutheran Church, 315 S. College Dr., Bowling Green.

The family suggests tributes to the Bowling Green School Foundation's teacher grants or to Bridge Hospice in Findlay.

This is a news story by Mike Sigov. Contact him at sigov@theblade.com, 419-724-6089, or on Twitter @mikesigovblade.