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15535 Mr. Richard T. Blow, III
September 05, 1921 - February 11, 2001

usma1946-D1

 

 MEMORIAL ARTICLE
Published Assembly Sept 2001

RICHARD TUNSTALL BLOW, III * '46
No. 15535 * 5 Sep 1921 - 11 Feb 2001
Died in Oak Harbor, WA * Inurned in Tahoma National Cemetery, Kent, WA

RICHARD TUNSTALL BLOW, III was born in Pasadena, CA. He grew up in Oregon, attending first Hill Military Academy in Portland and then Corvallis High School where he graduated 1939. He then went to Oregon State College where he earned a BS in Mathematics. He won his appointment to West Point and joined the class of 1946 on 1 July 1943.

Roommate, Josiah Wallace described Dick as a cadet: 'Dick clearly marched to a different drummer. He went with the flow of the system, didn't fight it nor was he an advocate. He, more than any professor, taught me the value and joy of intellectual activity. First, by his example. He was always reading or studying something. Dick was a scholar in every sense of the word. Dick's spiritual life was important to him. He enjoyed worshiping God through his singing in the Cadet Choir. " Dick graduated a second lieutenant in the Chemical Corps.

Following the Chemical Corps Basic Officer's Course at Edgewood Arsenal, MD, Dick was assigned to Japan to study the effects of the atomic bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. He was then selected to write the first plan against a potential atomic bomb attack against Tokyo and the 10,000 troops assigned there after WWII. While in Japan, Dick met and married a Japanese American lady working on a medical team. Dick left the Army in 1950 to pursue his intellectual interests in civilian life. His was to be a life of varied interests and accomplishments. He earned a Masters in Structural Engineering from Stanford University in 1953.

Dick was selected to be the sole university level engineering instructor at Seattle Central Community College where he taught for 14 years. He was selected to initiate the first weights-technology course for newly recruited engineering graduates for the Boeing Company. He was one of five professors in the northwest picked to teach a special cram course of fundamentals established by Boeing in 1968. Dick was selected to design, direct manage and document giant destruction tests of composite brick and concrete and dwarf-wall panels that enabled the Northwest Brick Association to secure favorable Seattle Building code changes.

Dick was selected as Project Engineer for several major civilian contracts in building Camp Braconne, a NATO ordnance and tank repair base in France. In the Seattle area as well as California, Dick was involved in many design projects to analyze and improve earthquake resistant structures. He moved to Oak Harbor, WA in 1991 where he was employed as an engineer for Public Works at Whidbey Island Naval Air Station.

Dick Blow was a very complex individual. He was extremely intellectual yet he had a marvelous sense of humor - witty, dry humor. He had an appreciation for natural beauty. Dick needed more than rules; he needed to understand the how and the why. He was always curious, always eager to learn. He was an avid hiker. For him, this was more than exercise; the small surprises found on a walk occupied his mind as well as his body.

Dick died 11 February 2001. Survivors include two daughters, Aya and Maiko and four grandchildren.

The reflections of those who knew and loved Dick Blow describe a man of great integrity and intellect.
Roommate Josiah Wallace recalled: "Dick was proud to be a graduate of West Point and brought credit to it by the way he lived. In his own way he carried Duty, Honor, Country to all he encountered on his chosen trail through life."
Daughter, Aya, wrote: "He was a wonderful dad. His honesty, integrity and passion for justice were instilled in me. He gave me a love for nature. I love and miss him."
Daughter Maiko wrote: "I am so thankful for the wonderful memories I have of him. I will treasure them forever. He was always generous and thoughtful. I love him and miss him incredibly."
His four granddaughters each wrote letters to their grandfather expressing their remembrances of him. Excerpts from those letters tell a lot about Dick Blow:
"You may know why we are all sad on this day.
And with our tears we weep for you,
You look down from heaven to say,
That you love us because you know we love you too."
"I wish that I could have seen you again to give you a hug and a kiss.
I love you and miss you lots."
"I loved him so dearly, I loved him so grand,
He always smiled, and loved to hold my hand."
"Encouraging and loving until the end,
He was my 'papa' and my friend."

When Dick's father died, he was remembered in Dick's Christmas letter with a quote from Longfellow. His family and friends felt that quote would also be appropriate to remember Dick:
"Sail on, nor fear to breast the sea!
Our hearts, our hopes, are all with thee,
Our hearts, our hopes, our prayers, our tears,
Our faith triumphant o'er our fears,
Are all with thee, -- are all with thee."

To this, the Class of 1946 adds the words that would mean so much to our classmate: "Well Done, Dick; Be Thou At Peace!


'46 Memorial Article Project and his family



 

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