Most people remember Brian for all the contention he and his brother had with D&D’s main creator Gary Gygax. However, if it weren’t for Brian, D&D wouldn’t have gotten off the ground as soon as it did (or maybe, never) because he provided the startup money to print the first 1000 copies of rules via TSR (the original company). His contribution didn’t end with money, he was involved with Boot Hill (TSR’s attempt at a Wild West RPG) and credited for creating D&D villain Vecna. On the latter, I always thought Gary just ripped off Michael Moorcock since Vecna’s infamous hand and eye are ripped off from The Chronicles of Corum.
As for the feud between him and Gary…
They had huge disagreements on how TSR was being run. The details are covered in several books such as Of Dice and Men plus I heard secondhand accounts during my time at GDW. Eventually Brian sold his share of TSR to investor Lorraine Williams illegally. How it was illegal, I’m not sure exactly, probably not through a broker or something. Despite Gary fighting this in a several-year-long lawsuit, the court upheld the transaction awarding Lorraine the status of majority shareholder and Gary’s exit.
Brian Blume was never really mentioned in the whole history of D&D or other RPGs after 1985 from my recollection. He sadly passed away 3/27 at a nursing home from dementia and Parkinson’s.
Well, I still thank you Brian for providing the initial capital to justify a revolution in games that then led to spawning hundreds of programmers and video games based upon D&D’s rules and tropes.