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C. Warren Bledsoe, longtime advocate for blinded veterans and
instrumental in the establishment and development of the Hines
Blind Rehabilitation Center, died on February 27, 2005. He was
92. At the time of his death Bledsoe was a member of the BVA National
Advisory Committee.
Although he was a prolific writer and at one time hoped to spend
his life writing novels, Warren Bledsoe devoted virtually all
of his time, resources, and intellect to the field of blind rehabilitation.
"I hold the art of teaching blind people how to perform without
sight among the highest callings which a human being may answer
with his life," he once wrote.
Bledsoe was born on July 15, 1912 on the premises of The Maryland
School for the Blind in Baltimore, where his father was superintendent.
He was not blind himself, but he grew and matured among the blind
students who attended the school by living right on the school’s
campus.
Following his graduation from Princeton University, Bledsoe returned
to the school and taught for six years. During this time, he also
participated in an advanced training course at the Perkins School
for the Blind near Boston.
Bledsoe enlisted in the Army during World War II and spent some
of his time at Valley Forge, Pennsylvania, where his experiences
with the blind were important in the development of mobility programs.
In association with Dr. Richard E. Hoover, also a former teacher
at The Maryland School for the Blind, Bledsoe helped develop the
long cane technique that continues to be used by the blind throughout
the world.
Following his discharge from military service, Bledsoe functioned
as a consultant for VA regarding blindness issues while also working
for the American Foundation for the Blind (AFB).
On September 15, 1947, he was appointed VA Coordinator of Blinded
Veterans Affairs by Major General Paul Hawley, VA’s Chief
Medical Director, with a directive to establish a modernized rehabilitation
program for the blind. Bledsoe teamed with a young Russ Williams,
an eminent blinded veteran of World War II, and Kathern Gruber,
an AFB representative of the blinded veterans, in the development
of the Blind Rehabilitation Center at the VA Hospital in Hines,
Illinois. Gruber was hired as a consultant by General Hawley to
support Bledsoe. Williams was Bledsoe’s choice to be the
first Chief of Blind Rehabilitation at the Center.
Bledsoe moved from VA to what was then the U.S. Department of
Health, Education, and Welfare (HEW), where he influenced the
commitment of federal funding to establish and promote training
programs for orientation and mobility specialists. His efforts
included a letter to President Dwight D. Eisenhower that paved
the way for subsequent support for such programs.
Before his retirement from HEW in 1976, he returned to The Maryland
School for the Blind as a member of its Board of Directors. He
served as Secretary of the Board and as chairman of several committees
before becoming an emeritus member in 1993.
Copies of many of Bledsoe’s writings are located in an archive
at BVA National Headquarters. Among his most notable publications
are a novel unrelated to blindness; frequent contributions to
the Blindness Annual; "Credo Ascribed to Certain Masters
of the Art of Teaching Blind People"; "Originators of
Orientation and Mobility Training" in Foundations of Orientation
and Mobility by Welsh and Blasch; "Social and Rehabilitation
Services for the Blind" in Hardy and Cull’s Social and
Rehabilitation Services for the Blind. He had also been instrumental
in preserving historical literature related to work with the blind
and visually impaired.
Bledsoe received awards from the American Association of Workers
for the Blind and the Association for Education and Rehabilitation
of the Blind and Visually Impaired. In 1995, the American Printing
House for the Blind honored him with its Wings of Freedom Award.
In 2002, APH inducted him into its Hall of Fame for Leaders and
Legends, located at its headquarters in Louisville, Kentucky.
Joining him in the Hall of Fame are other BVA notables such as
Williams, Gruber, and Father Thomas Carroll.
The late Russ Williams summarized Bledsoe’s contributions
to blinded veterans: "If Warren had not been around during
World War II and after, affairs for blinded veterans would have
been very different…Although not conspicuous in what he did,
I have come to realize over the past 50 years that it was he who
kept the environment around the Hines program a healthy and honest
one. If Warren had not been willing to give up his great desire
for writing novels to help out the Veterans Administration after
World War II, that agency might not have had a blind center."
(Stephen Miyagawa, Journey to Excellence, Lakeville, Minnesota:
Galde Press, Inc., 1999, p. 87)
Bledsoe was married to the late Anne Wunderle Bledsoe, who preceded
him in death by less than three months. Two daughters and three
grandchildren survive him. Memorial contributions may be made
in his name to The Maryland School for the Blind, 3501 Taylor
Avenue, Baltimore, MD 21236.
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