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Robert W. Blair, 1930-2016

Robert W. Blair, 1930-2016

Last updated on: February 22, 2016 at 10:21 pm by Dan Peterson

Robert W. Blair, 1930-2016 2016-02-22T22:21:58-07:00 Dan Peterson

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My wife and I were saddened, yesterday, to learn of the death of Bob Blair, whom we’ve known for many years as a member of a monthly reading group to which we belong.

He was a remarkable linguist, the founder of BYU’s Department of Linguistics, a former mission president, a devoted Latter-day Saint, and a very good man.

Here is the Deseret News obituary for him:

http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/deseretnews/obituary.aspx?n=robert-wallace-blair&pid=177788558&fhid=32272

Here is his testimony, from Mormon Scholars Testify:

http://mormonscholarstestify.org/1453/robert-w-blair

Bob had been seriously ill for a number of years now, and I expect that death came, for him, as a friend and a liberation. May God continue to bless him and his family.

Annie Pike Greenwood wrote these lyrics upon the death of another great BYU teacher, Dr. Karl G. Maeser (1828-1901), essentially the University’s founding president. For decades, they were included in the official hymnbook of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. They seem appropriate now, in Bob’s case, as well:

Come, lay his books and papers by.

He shall not need them more;

The ink upon his pen shall dry,

— So softly close the door.

His tired head with locks of white

And like the winter’s sun

Hath lain to peaceful rest to-night,

— The teacher’s work is done.

His work is done; no care to-night

His tranquil rest shall break;

Sweet dreams, and with the morning light

On other shores he’ll wake.

His noble thoughts, his wise appeal,

His work that battles won;

— But God doth know the loss we feel,

— The teacher’s work is done.

We feel it while we miss the hand

That made us brave to bear;

Perchance in that near-touching land

His work did wait him there.

Perchance when death its change has wrought,

And this brief race is run,

His voice again shall teach who thought

The teacher’s work was done!

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