Dr. Daniel V. Blair went to be with God on March 20, 2022. Daniel was born in 1950 to C. Victor and Betty Blair in Houston, Texas. The family moved back to Oklahoma and eventually to California, settling in Atascadero in 1960.
Daniel graduated from Atascadero High School in 1968. He married Jean Young, also from Atascadero. He attended Azusa Pacific College for two years, then left to join the Air Force and was stationed in Colorado for four years. During that time, his son Paul was born in Denver.
After his service, he returned to California and enrolled at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, where he received a B.S. degree in Ag Business Management. He and his family moved to Kansas, where he worked for E.C. Loomis & Son before returning to California to work for the Tandy Corporation. After a seven-year career with Tandy, he began a 20-year career with Hewlett-Packard in Silicon Valley. He led several worldwide initiatives, including the development of HP’s first worldwide training management system under his directorship of the human performance and systems lab. It was during these years Daniel also earned his Master’s from San Jose State and his Doctorate from The University of Southern California. Retiring early from HP, Daniel joined the American Society of Trainers and Developers as their Director of Research. There he created the Learning Executive’s Network as well as other national initiatives. He was then called back into service by the Department of Defense and had top-security clearance for the Defense Intelligence Agency as a senior advisor for talent management and career development.
After retiring from the DOD, Daniel devoted the remainder of his life to education and creating curriculum and programs. Daniel served as the Dean and professor of the college of business at Ohio Valley University and most recently as the Entrepreneur in Residence at Oklahoma Christian University. He also served as a Vice President for the non-profit Ace Educational Foundation, helping to create an aquaculture indoor greenhouse enterprise as well as working on many other projects.
Daniel was preceded in death by his parents and his wife, Jean. He is survived by his son Paul Blair (Julia) and their son Solomon along with his sister Pam Phillips (John) and his brother Tim Blair (Cathy), as well as numerous nieces and nephews and, of course, all of his students and colleagues who were his surrogate family.
We will all miss his infectious laugh, his deep insight, and how he lit up any room he was in.
