Frederic A. Blum Recipient of the
Donald C. ‘Mac’ MacDonald Award
at the 2005 Annual Meeting in Scottsdale, Ariz.
Few members can match the dedication that Fred Blum
has given to NAPPS in the 23 years since its founding.
I remember quite vividly our first convention in Denver
in April 1983. We were at the
historic Brown Palace Hotel.
Andy Estin was chairing the
meeting and seated behind him
at the head table were Mac
MacDonald, Fred Blum, and
Bud Herren. Almost a quarter
century later, Fred still has a
seat at the head table.
Born in Philadelphia in 1950,
he graduated high school at age
16 and set his sights on
becoming an airline pilot. That
turned out to not be a good
choice because the airlines had
their pick of trained pilots who
had started coming home from
Viet Nam. Through his father,
who worked in the
Prothonotary’s Office (Clerk of
the Court) in Philadelphia, Fred
got a job working for an individual who did filing for
lawyers. The job lasted only a few months. He quit
when Christmas came and the guy didn’t have the
money to pay him.
The experience he gained in dealing with the courts and
lawyers was valuable. A believer in personal contact, he
set out to sell himself and his business. His first client
paid him $10 week to do his court filing. That was 38
years ago and he still has that client.
As his business grew he took on a childhood friend,
Mitchell Rubin, and made him a partner. In 1971 they
formed B&R Services for Professionals, which
eventually expanded into the umbrella for a variety of
legal support services—investigation, process serving,
court filing and court reporting. His various companies
currently employ approximately 40 office and field
personnel, six of whom are NAPPS members.
The year 1975 was a turning point
for Fred. He began communicating
with California process servers who
informed him of CAPPS. He was
anxious to join and in 1976 he
traveled to Sacramento to attend his
first CAPPS convention. He
estimates he has attended another 15
CAPPS conferences in the
intervening years.
Fred was one of 42 process servers
who met in Las Vegas in 1982 to
form an association to fight a
proposed change to Rule 4 of the
Federal Rules of Civil Procedure
which would permit service by mail.
At that meeting he was elected
secretary of the newly formed
National Association of Professional
Process Servers (NAPPS).
Having known Fred since we first met at that first
NAPPS convention in 1983 and having worked with
him on a multitude of projects, I offer my list of the
accomplishments I believe more than qualify him as a
worthy recipient of the coveted Donald C. “Mac”
MacDonald Award.
His successful lobbying efforts to get the
Pennsylvania Supreme Court to change PA Rule
400 so that any person over the age of 18 could
serve original process in Philadelphia County. This
emergency rule, applicable to Philadelphia County
only, was put into effect in 1990 and made
permanent in 1998.
The success he and I had in meeting with legislators
in Washington, DC, in 1994 and influencing the
language in the Crime Bill that allows process
servers DMV access to drivers’ personal
information.
The enormous contribution he has made to establish
relations with the UIHJ and be a participant in the
meetings where he has influence over the decisions
being made that affect our industry.
The joint effort that we made in conceiving and
getting approval for private process servers to take
on the responsibility of serving documents that
originate in foreign countries and are served in the
U.S. in accordance with the Hague Convention and
other treaties. It took almost 5 years for the DOJ to
accept our idea, then another 5 years to get it
implemented. Fred spent a considerable amount of
his own money, not to mention political capital, in
getting these meetings arranged.
His service as an officer and director of NAPPS. He
has been elected President five times, has had a seat
on the board for each of the past 23 years, and
during that time has never missed a convention and
only one board meeting.
Fred and his wife Joni, married for 28 years, have one
son, Jeffrey, who has recently entered the business with
his dad. He attended his first NAPPS convention this
year in Scottsdale. Their daughter, Remi, has blessed
them with their first grandchild, Kylie.
A lifelong muscle car buff, his 4-car garage usually
houses at least one exotic car in addition to a muscle car
and several others.
Fred’s interest in the genealogy of his family and
ancestors has taken him throughout the United States,
Canada, and various European and Eastern European
countries. He has become so good at tracing ancestors
that he now volunteers his time to the International Red
Cross Holocaust Tracing Service in finding and
reconnecting families displaced from WWII.
This is the second time Fred has been honored with a
prestigious award for his contributions to the process
serving industry. In 1998 CAPPS awarded him its
highest award, the Bert Rosenthal Memorial Award.
