The History of Medicine Division of the National Library of Medicine is
sad to announce the death of John Blake, who served as the first Chief
of the Division from 1961 to 1982. He is the compiler of NLM's A Short
Title Catalogue of Eighteenth Century Printed Books in the National
Library of Medicine, published in 1979, which is so often cited in
bibliographies and book dealer catalogs. Below is an obituary that
appeared in the Frederick (Md.) News Post, his local newspaper.
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Mr. John Blake
Frederick News-Post- As originally published on Tuesday, September 26,
2006.
John Ballard Blake, former chief of the History of Medicine Division,
National Library of Medicine, and former chairman of the Frederick
County Forest Conservancy District Board, died September 24, 2006, in
Adamstown, Maryland, of pancreatic cancer. He was 83 years old.
Born October 29, 1922, John Blake was raised in New Haven, Connecticut,
where he graduated from Yale College Phi Beta Kappa with the class of
1943. He served in the U.S. Army Air Force during World War II and then
earned a Ph.D. in American history from Harvard University. In 1957 Dr.
Blake moved to Washington, D.C., to work as curator of the Division of
Medical Science at the Smithsonian Institution. From September 1961
until his retirement from government service in October 1982, he served
as chief of the History of Medicine Division of the National Library of
Medicine in Bethesda, Maryland. For this work he earned an Award of
Merit in 1982 from the National Institutes of Health. He also was active
in the American Association for the History of Medicine, receiving the
Association's Lifetime Achievement Award in 2001.
On April 2, 1949, Dr. Blake married Jean Place Adams in Newtonville, New
York. In 1984, after maintaining weekend farm property in Frederick
County for many years, they moved from Washington to live full-time on
their Civil War era former dairy farm near Wolfsville, Maryland, which
they named Hornet Hill.
In 1985 the Blakes entered their property in the Forest Stewardship
Program and signed a long-term forest management agreement to conserve
the farm as woodland. John Blake later served on the Frederick County
Forest Conservancy District Board as its chairman from 1991 to 2001. He
joined the Maryland Forest Association in 1991, and in 1992 the Blakes
were named Maryland Tree Farmers of the Year. John Blake went on the
MFA's Board of Governors in 1992, and frequently commented on proposed
bills before the Maryland legislature. He received the MFA's Forestry
Activist of the Year Award in 2002, and in 2004 the Blakes jointly
received the MFA's first ever Lifetime of Service to Forestry Award.
The Blakes' four children and eight grandchildren have enjoyed several
decades of visiting the farm, where John and Jean also grew fresh
vegetables and fruit for many years. In 2005 the Blakes moved to the
Buckingham's Choice retirement community in Adamstown, but continued to
maintain Hornet Hill with the help of their son John G. Blake and his
wife Bette A. Loiselle. Both ornithologists living in Arlington,
Virginia, they have identified 124 different species of birds on the
Blakes' 96-acre property.
Daughter Catherine C. Blake, a U.S. District Court Judge, lives in
Baltimore, Maryland, with her husband Dr. Frank Eisenberg; daughter Ann
B. Blake, a teacher, lives with her husband Professor Ian MacDonald in
Corpus Christi, Texas; and son Jim A. Blake, a lawyer, lives with his
wife Nancy in Palo Alto, California. John Blake's brother, Dr. Francis
G. Blake, Jr., died in 1991; another brother, Dr. William D. Blake and
his wife Rosemary, live in Bath, Maine.
Memorial services will be private. Donations may be made to the
Frederick County Forest Conservancy District Board c/o Michael Kay,
executive secretary, 8602 Gambrill Park Road, Frederick, MD 21702.