Funeral Details

Blakley, Richard Ewen.

Beloved and devoted son of the late Harriet and the late Richard Blakley; caring brother of the late Palmer Jane Blakley (Gholamali Afshang); BEST BIG BROTHER EVER to Allison Carol Blakley. Born in Chicago in 1953, Richard (known to family and early friends as Ewen) spent his formative years in that most idyllic corner of the far South Side known as Merrionette Manor, attending Luella School (class of 1966) and James H. Bowen High School (class of 1970). While in high school, Richard was an active member of Manor AZA. Richard loved books, reading, and education. He attended the University of Michigan (1970-71) and later Barat College of the Sacred Heart. When Barat could not grant him a degree because it was chartered as a women’s college, Richard transferred to Connecticut College, where after two more years of study he received a B.A. in History and French. At every stage of his life, Richard developed lifelong friendships which he cultivated and nurtured until the last few years of his life when Frontotemporal Degeneration robbed him of much of his personality, with the isolation of Covid compounding the effects of his illness. His best friend for 66 years was his baby sister, Allison, with whom he shared a room from age 4 to age 8. He taught Allison to love the White Sox, listening together to night games on a transistor radio he received for Christmas in 1958. Together they invented many games, the most common of which, prompted by their mother’s entreaties to clean up, was “moving men” in which they shared the job of moving toys from their play area to the cabinets lining the basement walls. His first job was as an ambulance driver in “Life in a Hospital,” a play directed by his sister Palmer. His next job was as a chair designer for the American Chair Company (Palmer was President and Allison was the sole salesperson). As a child, he aspired to be a garbageman in New York City after reading in the newspaper that they were paid $50,000 a year. As an adult, he worked many part-time jobs, always to leave himself time to pursue his love of reading. When he could, he also worked around books, as an employee at Scotland Yard Books in Winnetka and as the proprietor of Nevermore Books through which he dealt in rare and out-of-print mystery books. It was a business that put him first or second in line at the Brandeis Book Sale for many years. In 1981, Richard was hired as a seasonal worker at UPS, remaining as a permanent, part-time pre-loader, loading package cars while the rest of the world slept, for 35 years. He was a member of Teamsters Local 705 and served proudly as an alternate delegate to a Teamsters convention. He also stood strong on the picket line when Local 705 struck UPS, and his picket sign held pride of place in his home for the remainder of his life. The first thing he read each day for many years were the death notices in the Chicago Tribune because in the Blakley family you weren’t dead unless it was in the Trib. He often read the most interesting of the notices aloud.
At the end of his life, Richard suffered from both Frontotemporal Degeneration and advanced metastatic bladder cancer. Death was a welcome release.
In lieu of flowers, please honor Richard’s memory with a contribution to The Association for Frontotemporal Degeneration (theaftd.org) or PAWS Chicago (pawschicago.org). Service Sunday 1:30 PM at Chicago Jewish Funerals, 195 N. Buffalo Grove Road (One block north of Lake Cook Road) Buffalo Grove. Interment Willow Lawn Cemetery, Vernon Hills. Shiva will follow the interment at Chicago Jewish Funerals until 9 PM. To attend the funeral live stream, please visit our website. Arrangements by Chicago Jewish Funerals – Buffalo Grove Chapel, 847.229.8822, www.cjfinfo.com