Leo Vernon Blakley

March 11, 2013

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Leo Vernon Blakley, 92, and a longtime Stillwater resident, passed from this existence to life eternal on March 11, 2013, in Stillwater. Leo was born on a farm near Kendrick, OK. Elementary and secondary education were completed in Kendrick with the graduation of a senior class composed of 12 boys and two girls and valedictorian of the class. Education at the university level began with enrollment in agriculture at Oklahoma A & M College where he received a bachelor’s degree with special mention in Agricultural Economics. His education was interrupted by World War II when he entered the U.S. Naval Reserve for officer training and subsequent service in the amphibious force serving in the Mediterranean Theatre. After WWII, he returned to OSU to begin graduate study and received a master’s degree in agricultural economics in 1947. He joined the faculty in the Department of Agricultural Economics at OSU as an instructor teaching dairy marketing an upper division course in agricultural prices. He received his doctorate degree in economics at the University of Chicago in 1961. Leo taught a variety of upper division classes, conducted marketing research, and was the editor of Oklahoma Current Farm Economics. He retired in 1985, after 38 years of valuable service to many students and the university. He met his high school sweetheart, Betty Flynn Watson, while attending high school and they married in Norfolk, Va., on March 21, 1943. They had 56 wonderful years together, traveling around the world and enjoying family, before her passing in 1997. He married Betty Jo Boggs in 2000. Leo enjoyed volunteering on various OSU committees, farming, gardening, stained glass work, woodworking and was the church treasurer for 17 years.