Howard Baum would have smiled that smile of his on this Thursday afternoon at his bowling alley along Fort Bragg Road, where some youngsters were learning about the game on lane three, and down the way you could hear the pins falling, too.
For more than 67 years, he came to know the sights and the sounds.
“He loved being able to provide entertainment and fun for people,” daughter Nance Schenk, 51, said about B&B Lanes, the business Howard Baum and his cousin, David Blume, opened on August 10, 1959. “David lived in Boston and Daddy in Cleveland, and they spent summers together. They later served two years at Fort Bragg, and always wanted to go into business together, so they took out a small loan and built B&B Lanes.”
Life was simple and innocent in the late 1950s and into the 1960s.
World War II and Korean War soldiers were back home and raising families, living in starter homes throughout Fayetteville and looking for entertainment where they could find it. You found them at the Putt-Putt Golf Course founded by the late Don Clayton at the apex of Bragg Boulevard and Fort Bragg Road, at the Dairy Queen ordering banana splits, sundaes, or that soft-serve vanilla or chocolate ice cream cone across from what today is the Eutaw Shopping Center.
Or you could find them at B&B Lanes.
Before B&B Lanes, the property was just a field. But Howard Baum and David Blume had a vision for what was to come—16 bowling lanes and an accompanying jazz club.
Blume was a musician, Nancy Schenk says, and managed the jazz club known as The Groove. Howard Baum managed the bowling alley.
“Dad was the businessman behind it,” she said. “He took care of the advertising and finances.”
B&B Lanes was the only bowling business in town, and a popular place.
“It was two great years,” Schenk said.
Others, like the late Tom Iuliucci, saw B&B Lanes’ success.
“Lafayette Lanes opened in 1961,” Schenk said about Iuliucci’s bowling house on Raeford Road. “They were new and more modern, with more lanes. Dad had to work hard to stay ahead. My grandparents, George and Betty Baum, moved from Cleveland to help. My grandmother got a youth bowling program started. And my dad made it all work.”
Howard Baum and Lynda Baum added eight additional lanes to the business in 1972 after David Blume sold his interest in 1970 and moved to California, where he worked as a copy editor for the Los Angeles Times until 1999 and owned a folk music dance club. Blume died at age 74 on March 15, 2006.
Bowling and the Wolfpack
Howard Baum was an astute businessman, and those in the bowling trade came to know Baum was a man of measure. He became involved in the Bowling Proprietors Association of America, serving on the national board and other committees. He chaired the BPAA Tournament Committee, overseeing several U.S. Opens. He was executive director of the Bowling Proprietors Association of the Carolinas and Georgia from 1977-2016. In 1994, he revitalized the BPAA Trade Show into what is now the Bowl Expo. In 2008, Baum was inducted into the Bowling Hall of Fame.
Howard Baum knew the bowling world, and the bowling world knew Howard Baum.
It was his bowling industry business mind and his passion for sports that, in 1967, led Baum to a chance meeting at a golf outing with Bill Jackson, a play-by-play analyst with N.C. State Radio for Wolfpack football.
Jackson learned of Baum’s skills with numbers and offered Baum a job as a spotter, where he earned $10 per Wolfpack game, a parking pass, and a free meal. Baum eventually spent the ensuing six decades crunching numbers as a football and basketball statistician for the university.
Baum was honored at N.C. State’s final basketball game of the 2025-2026 season at the Lenovo Center for his 60 years as a Wolfpack statistician. He signed a contract for this Wolfpack football season.
Howard Baum turned over the daily operations of B&B Lanes 23 years ago to his daughter Nancy Schenk and her husband Gary.
“Now it’s me, Gary, and Andrew DeJaynes,” Schenk said. DeJaynes is the son of the late Jay DeJaynes, longtime general manager of the business. “Gary oversees the machine maintenance and the back end. I oversee the employees and marketing.”
Retired, But Never Far Away
But, she said, her father always was coming to the bowling alley for assurance that they were following the business practices he taught.
“Up until this summer, he came in every single day,” she said. “He was still driving himself to work. He would check our (daily financial) numbers, and he would check our pro shop inventory.”
Schenk says her father’s health declined after returning from a cruise in May, when he was diagnosed with atrial fibrillation and congestive heart failure.
Howard Daniel Baum died on August 27 at his home.
He was 92.
A graveside service was held Monday at Beth Israel Cemetery in Cross Creek.
“He loved his life,” widow Lynda Baum said Thursday as she sat at Howard Baum’s bowling alley desk that was a part of Howard Baum for 67 years. “He loved helping people. He loved trying to make a difference. He did most of it behind the scenes. He never wanted a single second of glory for himself. He never did anything for the glory of it. He did it to help others. He had 92 wonderful years.”
She will miss being with him at N.C. State football tailgate parties and listening to him analyze the games won and lost on their trips from Raleigh to Fayetteville.
“I’m just going to miss seeing him coming through the door,” she said about their 56 years of marriage. “And I will miss his love.”
Epilogue
A Celebration of Life is scheduled from 1 p.m.-3p.m. Saturday at B&B Lanes.
“A celebration of everything he loved and people telling stories,” Nancy Schenk said. “It will be a happy time, but no tears.”
Some will remember Howard Baum as the owner of the bowling alley along Fort Bragg Road. Schenk will remember a father who always was there for her and her sister and cheered them along in their lives.
“He loved providing family time for people,” she said. “He loved helping other people in the business. He was their heartbeat. And here, we don’t cure cancer, but this is the place you come to forget and have a good time.”
Howard Baum would have smiled watching those youngsters on Thursday learning how to bowl. He would have liked the sights and sounds of another day at B&B Lanes that has been a part of Fayetteville for so long. Howard Baum would not have changed a single day at the business so dear to his heart, and always reminding others that Fayetteville was the place he called home.
Bill Kirby Jr. can be reached at billkirby49@gmail.com or 910-624-1961.
