Stephen Thomas Blair
Stephen Thomas Blair, 63, born in Creston, Iowa, on Feb. 5, 1951, died suddenly from a heart attack on April 23, 2014, at his home in San Antonio, Texas. He grew up in Illinois but spent idyllic summers on his grandparents' farm outside of Afton, Iowa. For the past many years, he lived with and helped care for his parents. His mother, Betty Ann Blair, a longtime resident of Kankakee, survives him. His father, Donald Gentry Blair, also an Afton native, passed away in 2011.
Steve was a ferocious center on his Kankakee Senior High 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 Vietnam being left behind and forgotten after the Vietnam war ended.
After graduating from Kankakee Senior High, he earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in political science from the University of Illinois in 1974. 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.