Stephen Thomas Blair, 63, born in Creston, Iowa on February 5, 1951, died suddenly from a heart attack on April 23 at his home in San Antonio, Texas. He grew up in Illinois but spent idyllic summers on his grandparent’s farm outside of Afton, Iowa. For the past many years, he lived with and helped care for his parents. His mother, Betty Ann Blair, originally of Red Oak and Afton, survives him. His father, Donald Gentry Blair, also an Afton native, passed away in 2011.
Steve was a ferocious center on his high-school football team but off the field then and throughout his life he was a gentle and generous man of wide-ranging interests and intense passions. He was an avid student of World War II history and documentaries, and enjoyed conversations with its veterans, including his father, himself a B-17 bomber crew member during the war. Steve also spent his later years researching and writing on such diverse subjects as the assassination of President John Kennedy and the possibility of American service members imprisoned or missing in Viet Nam being left behind and forgotten after the Viet Nam war ended.
He graduated from the University of Illinois in 1974 with a B.A. in Political Science. Steve subsequently attended the John Marshall Law School in Chicago and pursued graduate studies at Arizona State University. He eventually settled in Houston, Texas to work as a computer graphics designer for the oil giant Aramco. A longtime employee, Steve developed the first computer graphics operation at the company and worked closely with the company’s executives on their talks and presentations.
Other survivors include his brother, Bruce Blair of Washington, D.C., and sisters Kathy Donzis of San Antonio, Jann Jarvis of Minneapolis, and Jill Firszt of St. Louis. A private memorial for Steve will be held in Afton this fall. His close-knit and loving family mourns his passing and asks that friends make a contribution to their favorite charity in lieu of flowers. Steve generously supported a number of charities and was particularly supportive of Save the Children and organizations that support veterans in need.