06-11-2023 HOF - Flipbook - Page 35
Baltimore Sun Media | Sunday, June 11, 2023 35
R
obert K. “Bob” Gehman grew up in a
Mennonite farm family in Pennsylvania, but by the time he was in his 20s, he
had left the farm and gone to seminary to
become a Baptist minister. He pastored a
church in Baltimore County for 10 years
before taking another path that led him,
eventually, to the Helping Up Mission in
Baltimore.
Looking back on his journey, all of
Gehman’s experiences — as a minister, as a professional raiser of funds
for faith-based nonprofits and as a man who watched a loved one struggle with alcoholism — seemed to prepare him for his work with troubled
souls in Baltimore.
When he became CEO of the Helping Up Mission, Gehman quickly
concluded that offering a dose of Gospel, a meal and a bed for the night
was not enough. Early in his tenure, he decided there had to be more to
the mission.
“What really became apparent to me,” he says, “was that these 125 to 150
men who were coming in off the streets every night — getting clothes and
shelter and food and then going out on the streets the next morning — were
experiencing mental illness, alcoholism and drug addiction. If we did not
come up with a program that would address those needs, then we were just
going to have to be happy with the conditions as they are. … So we decided
to start a residential program.”
It did not happen overnight, and not without some pushback from the
Jonestown community, where the Helping Up Mission had been located
for years. Eventually, Gehman convinced opponents that his 24/7 spiritual
recovery program would be well-managed.
Age: 74
Hometown: Bowmansville, Pennsylvania
Current residence: Glyndon
Education: Master’s in religious education
from Liberty University; graduate certification in
nonprofit studies from the Johns Hopkins University
Career highlight: CEO, Helping Up Mission
Civic and charitable activities: Jewish Museum
of Maryland, the Jonestown Planning Council,
Historic Jonestown Inc., and Camp WABANNA,
a camp offered by Helping Up Mission to children of
the men and women in its Spiritual Recovery Program
Family: Divorced; two children and seven grandchildren
It also had to be well-financed,
and that’s where Gehman put his
fundraising skills to work. As years
went by, Helping Up Mission was
able to acquire more property
along the 1000 block of East Baltimore Street and serve a growing
number of men seeking a place to
stay while getting help with their
recovery from addictions and
homelessness.
These days, the mission
provides beds and meals for up
to 500 men. It offers thousands
of hours of counseling during
the course of a year. A campaign
that raised $62 million resulted in
the construction of a building for
women and children in need of
housing and health services.
Gehman, 74, accomplished
these major expansions with the
help of donors and volunteers
who saw the mission’s commitment to changing lives.
“Although the shelter was
meeting basic needs of people, it
was a revolving door,” says Mary
Lashley, a professor of community health nursing at Towson
University who, after volunteering at the mission, became a
member of its board. “What was
needed was to really get at the root
issues that were leading to chronic
homelessness. And that included
poverty and addiction and mental
health issues. Bob saw the need for
much more comprehensive, holistic programming to address the
needs of people struggling with
addiction and homelessness.”
Lashley found Gehman to be
a visionary leader. “He’s very
future-oriented,” she says. “He’s
always thinking about where
we’re going to be in 10 and 20
and 30 years, where society will
be and how we can best respond
to the needs of the people we
serve. … He has a very humble
spirit, and he trusts good people
to do good work and produce good
outcomes.”
After heading the mission for
29 years, Gehman stepped aside
in January and now has the title
of CEO emeritus.
The problems of poverty, homelessness, addictions and mental
illness persist, and hundreds of
men and women still come looking for help.
“You don’t think about what
“You don’t think
about what you can’t
change. I am in the
helping business. We
help people who have
fallen hard and will die
if they don’t get help.
I can bring them in
and have a little oasis
where we can give
people all the basic
needs.”
— Robert K. “Bob” Gehman
you can’t change,” Gehman says.
“I am in the helping business. We
help people who have fallen hard
and will die if they don’t get help. I
can bring them in and have a little
oasis where we can give people all
the basic needs. We can give them
the physical health they need with
primary medical care. We can get
them mental health services —
seven counselors are right here
on site. We can give them drug
treatment counseling. We can
give them spiritual help. We have
a school that is turning out graduates getting high school diplomas,
a work program that finds people
jobs. And so we can create an organization like that. We are so happy
to see people’s lives changed.”
There have been many — one,
in particular, who Gehman called
“the five-time guy” because he
failed to stay off drugs four times
and had to leave the recovery
program. Given a fifth chance, he
graduated from the mission and
found a job driving a truck for
the city. The man called to Bob
Gehman one day as he walked into
the mission. “Thank you,” he said.
“You saved my life.”
— Dan Rodricks
