I remember, in my early days of broadcasting Lady Tiger Basketball, turning to my colleague Brad Ellis during a commercial break and asking him a very serious question.

“Hey Brad, who is that guy wiping up the floor?”

Brad responded simply by saying “That’s the Rev.”

I thought in my head, “I gotta meet this guy!”

Before the next girls game, I did, and I have never been the same since.

His full name: Roy C. Blake. “The Rev” was not a nickname—it’s who he was.

I say was, because Roy met the Jesus that he served for most of his 94 years of life on Sunday.

He was a deeply devoted man of God. Being retired never meant not serving to Roy. He filled pulpits in churches of all shapes and sizes, and I haven’t ever heard of anyone who attended a church he helped out in that didn’t come away feeling like they were better for it.

He was undeniably a man who was tapped into the greatest power source in the universe.

But as I broke the news on my social media platforms Monday afternoon, the things people remember The Rev for varied widely.

Once person remember playing football for the Tigers, and having Rev bark at him, “WATCH IT, WATCH IT…you are lined up off-sides young man!”

Another football player remembered running off the field during a game on a scorching-hot, early-season night and turning to face the field. He felt this cool towel fall across his neck in between his helmet and his shoulder pads.

The Rev had put it there.

The reason why I first met this dear man is because he was sitting at the end of the basketball floor with a towel draped over his shoulder. When a player fell down on the court, The Rev was right there to wipe it up and get back out of the way.

Some of you reading this were married by Roy Blake.

Some of you have been at funeral services led by Roy Blake.

Members of the media, game workers and school administrators attending home football games and state tournament events at Warsaw remember The Rev as the smiling face that greeted people in the hospitality room.

He was a game official.

He was a public address announcer for home sporting events.

He led team devotions.

He was a war hero.

He was a loving husband to Kathy and a top-shelf example for us men in how to be a leader in a home and in a community.

Thank you, Kathy, for sharing him with us.

He was something different to so many people, but there was one common denominator in all of it.

He was a man of service.

If you asked him how he was doing, he would shrug his shoulders and turn the conversation back on to you and how you were doing.

He asked very little for himself, but was grateful for what he was given.

He was real.

He was blunt.

He was loving.

I remember what turns out to be the last time I saw him on this side of the Crystal Sea. It was like so many times before. He started by saying my name in French—it sounded like “Ro-zhair”. He moved toward me, right hand out for me to shake, left hand up high to wrap around my shoulder in a warm embrace.

He then, always, said something in French. I never knew what he said but it didn’t matter because it came from his heart, and that meant it was good.

And he probed “How’s your walk with the Lord been?”

We know how his walk with the Lord is today. Those little, choppy, old-man shuffles have given way to a heavenly stride. His chin held high…because how else could you feel to hear the Master say “well done, good and faithful servant—welcome home. Come see the place I have prepared for you.”

Until that glorious day, in that glorious place where we will meet again, Roy Blake, I bid you “au revoir”…and thank you for your service.