Richard J. Blakinger, 100

June 23, 2022

Richard J. Blakinger, a longtime Lancaster civic leader, former president of Hamilton Watch Company, prominent lawyer and local tennis legend, died of heart failure at the Willow Valley Communities on June 23, 2022. He was 100.

Born and educated in the Midwest, Blakinger came to Lancaster in 1951 after serving as a navigator bombardier in the Army Air Corps in World War II and a staffer for a U.S. senator.

Despite a busy career, he always made it home to dinner with his wife and family of five children and found time for family tennis on weekends, said his son, Chuck Blakinger.

Blakinger, known by friends and family as Dick, graduated in 1940 from East Aurora High School in Illinois. He then enrolled at Cornell College in Mount Vernon, Iowa, where he met his wife of 73 years, the late Barbara Bowman Blakinger. His college years were interrupted by World War II, when he served three years in the Army Air Corps, flying 21 missions aboard a B-25 in the Philippines. He achieved the rank of first lieutenant.

After earning a degree from Cornell College in Iowa, where he was elected to Phi Beta Kappa and lettered in tennis and wrestling, he earned a law degree from Northwestern University in 1949. He then worked for Sen. Scott Lucas of Illinois, majority leader of the U.S. Senate, as a speechwriter and research assistant.

Moving to Lancaster in 1951, Blakinger became general counsel for Hamilton Watch Company. He held various executive positions with Hamilton over the next two decades, becoming president in 1967. He left the company in 1970 to become a partner in a Lancaster law firm, now Blakinger, Thomas, P.C., with 20 attorneys. He retired in 2001.

For five decades, Blakinger played an active role in the community. He served on the Lancaster General Hospital board from 1963 to 1993 and as chairman from 1981 to 1983. He also served on the boards of hospital-affiliated organizations including the Lancaster General Health Foundation.

He was a founding member of the Urban League of Lancaster County, serving on the board and as president. His involvement with several other non-profit organizations included serving on the boards of the National Conference of Christians and Jews, the Lancaster County branch of the Pennsylvania Economy League and the Easter Seal Society. He was a trustee of Millersville University, a campaign chairman of the Lancaster County Community Chest (United Way) in 1957 and its president in 1959.

More recently, Blakinger served as a director of Hospice of Lancaster County from 1996 to 2002 and was board chairman in 2002. He was also a director and secretary of the Lancaster County Historical Society.

Blakinger was a member for over 50 years of the Lancaster Bar Association and the American Bar Association.

A lifelong Catholic, he was a member of St. Anne’s Church and, more recently, St. John Neumann Church in Manheim Township.

Blakinger also had a life-long love of and competitive zest for tennis. As a boy he learned by watching players on the court, became captain of his high school tennis team and played in college. He was a nationally ranked player starting with the 65-and-over age group. In 2002, he was ranked third nationally in the 80-and-over age group and continued to play regularly until he was 97. He was elected to the Lancaster County Tennis Hall of Fame in 2003. He was a member of the Lancaster Tennis and Yacht Club, the Lancaster Country Club, and the Hamilton Club.

He was the son of the late Leo and Loretta Blakinger of Aurora, Illinois, and was predeceased by his parents, his brother Leo, his sister Jean Blakinger Keil, wife Barbara Bowman Blakinger, who died in 2018, and granddaughter Julia Rubadue.

He is survived by five children: Chuck of Lititz, husband of Mary; Dan of Lancaster, husband of Cindy; Betsy Rubadue of Wrightsville, wife of Joseph; John of Albany, Oregon, husband of Teresa; and Jean of West Chester, widow of Matthew Zizik. He is also survived by 13 grandchildren: Kate, John, Keri, Andrew, Krista, Maria, Jamie, Michael, Grace, Carly, Dane, Kyle and Valerie; and by seven great-grandchildren: Gabriel, Austin, Ellis, Dean, Evaline, Micah and Ariana.

A Mass of Christian Burial will be celebrated at St. John Neumann Church, 601 East Delp Road, Lancaster, on Thursday, June 30, at 11am. Friends and family are invited to attend a visitation at the church from 10 to 11am.

In lieu of flowers, please send contributions to St. John Neumann Church, 601 Delp Road, Lancaster, PA 17601, or to Hospice and Community Care, P.O. Box 4125, Lancaster, PA 17604.