Shorewood Resident Remembered for Activism

Remembered for his civil rights and anti-war activism, Frank Blair died July 5 in his Shorewood home, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports.

"I think he saw the men who create wars as the problem, and Big Oil - he thought that Big Oil was behind everything,” the newspaper quoted Blair’s daughter Betsy Blair as saying. “And I think of my dad as being really, really patriotic in terms of freedom of speech and that he felt it was his duty to speak out on what was wrong."

A Christian and anti-war voice in Shorewood and Milwaukee, Blair would write to newspapers and take part in protests outside legislators’ homes and offices, the newspaper says, being arrested in the process.

Following military service in the Navy during World War II, his interest in education grew and he became a specialist in special education at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, in the late 1960s. He retired as professor emeritus in 1984.

A memorial gathering will be held from 4 to 7 p.m. July 27 at the Astor Hotel, 924 E. Juneau Ave.

Read the full obituary here.