Blackford, Staige D(avis) 1931-2003
BLACKFORD, Staige D(avis) 1931-2003
OBITUARY NOTICE—See index for CA sketch: Born January 3, 1931, in Charlottesville, VA; died in an automobile accident June 23, 2003, in Charlottesville, VA. Journalist, editor, and author. Blackford was most well known for his editorship of the prestigious Virginia Quarterly Review. A graduate of the University of Virginia, where he earned a B.A. in 1952, he received a second bachelor's degree from Oxford University in 1954 as a Rhodes scholar. After serving in the U.S. Air Force for two years, he worked as a research director of the Southern Regional Council in Atlanta, Georgia in the early 1960s and as a political reporter for the Norfolk, Virginia Pilot from 1964 to 1969. During the 1970s Blackford was the Virginia governor's press secretary and also served as a secretary to two presidents of the University of Virginia. In 1975 he became editor of the Virginia Quarterly Review, a highly respected literary journal that he edited for the next twenty-nine years. When he died in a car crash Blackford was one week away from retirement.
OBITUARIES AND OTHER SOURCES:
PERIODICALS
New York Times, June 25, 2003, p. A25.
Washington Post, June 25, 2003, p. B7.