The following is the text of an email sent on October 20, 2023.
The world of physical activity and public health lost a giant on October 6, 2023 with the death of Steven N. Blair, P.E.D. Dr. Blair led an astonishing, extended career of scientific productivity, leadership, and teaching.
Born in Kansas to career farmers, Dr. Blair completed his undergraduate training at Kansas Wesleyan University. It was in SPH's former iteration as the School of Health, Physical Education and Recreation (HPER) that he both met his future wife Jane (also a school alumnus) and earned his doctoral degree. His career path led him to the University of South Carolina, a post-doctoral fellowship at Stanford University, and the Cooper Institute for Aerobics Research. He later rejoined the faculty at the University of South Carolina for the last years of his remarkable career.
Dr. Blair’s influence includes his groundbreaking work on fitness and mortality in the Aerobics Center Longitudinal Study, his role as founding president of the U.S. National Coalition to Promote Physical Activity, and as senior scientific editor of the first U.S. Surgeon General’s Report on Physical Activity and Health. Dr. Blair’s seemingly endless energy and singular focus helped to build the discipline of physical activity as we now know it. At times controversial, he always relied on the scientific process to advance the field and separate physical activity and public health from the laboratory-based constraints of classical exercise physiology.
Although Dr. Blair’s scientific contributions are apparent and readily available, less well-known is the influence he had on young scientists, particularly his support of young scientists and practitioners who are women. Leaders are everywhere. Those who set themselves apart are those who take the time to pull the next generation(s) up with them. Dr. Blair was particularly influenced by Dr. Ralph Paffenbarger, and he turned that mentoring into a role model for himself. Indeed, the field of physical activity and health is what it has become because of Dr. Blair’s leadership and attention to the next generation of leaders. For young scientists in the newly formed discipline of physical activity epidemiology in the 1980s, he was a hero.
To both of us, Steve was a friend and a wonderful man. He seemed to glow with kindness and collegiality, always parting with civility and respect after well-intentioned debate. When you walked away from Steve, you had new insight and were more educated—and you knew he was your friend.
For our school, he was a contributor of both time and funding. In addition to supporting a student research endowment, he was a member of the school's inaugural Dean's Associates cohort in 2005. And just a few years ago, he and Jane enthusiastically attended the Emerging Luminaries event here on campus.
While he will be missed, those who knew him know that he would want his legacy to continue in zealous pursuit of the next frontiers in physical activity and health. As we move from being sedentary to taking a walk; as we commit to climbing the stairs rather than using an elevator, or as a six-minute per mile running time becomes 15 minutes or more later in life, we shall remember Steven N. Blair for his lifetime of science and advocacy around physical activity and health.
Sincerely,
NiCole R. Keith, Ph.D.
Executive Associate Dean
David B. Allison, Ph.D.
Dean, Distinguished Professor, Provost Professor