William K. “Bill” Blewett, an engineer and a celebrated competitive runner who wrote a weekly running column for The Aegis, died Friday from leukemia at his Bel Air home. He was 77.
“Bill was really plugged into the running community and was impressive from the start,” said Mac Lloyd, former Aegis sports editor who hired Mr. Blewett.
“He had a certain bearing and a wonderful personality. With Bill, there was no hyperbole, there was no gingerbread, he just wrote good stories,” Mr. Lloyd said.
Mr. Blewett was an engineer and senior scientist at Aberdeen Proving Ground for more than three decades.
“He was an engineer through and through,” said John Resta, an APG engineer and colleague. “He hated unsolved problems which could lead to complete distraction, and when he came across them, he tried to fix them.”
“It was the Cold War and there were a lot of scary problems and we wanted to protect people and we think we deterred people from people and our enemies from attacking us,” said Mr. Resta, who retired from APG after 40 years in 2020.
William Keenan Blewett, son of David Henry Blewett, a Prudential commercial insurance agent, and Mildred Marie Haggard Blewett, a teacher, was born in Los Angeles and moved with his family to Lawton, Oklahoma, where he was raised.
He was a 17-year-old student at Lawton High School when he discovered a passion for running.
After graduating from high school in 1965, Mr. Blewett earned a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering in 1971 from the University of Oklahoma, and a master’s degree in industrial engineering in 1974 from Texas A&M University.
He competed in the 1968 Olympic Trials for the marathon, which he ran in 2:35.
While in college, he pursued breaking the 4-minute mile, and eventually in 1972 attained a personal best with a 4.02.1 for the event.
“His pursuit of this milestone led him to compete neck and neck with some of the best athletes of his time, including [Olympic athlete] Jim Ryun,” according to a biographical sketch of Mr. Blewett’s life.
In 1973, he had a first-place finish in the Peachtree 10K in Atlanta, with a time of 31.22.
He was the winner of the first three Bel Air Town Run 5K races in 1981, 1982 and 1983, and during his competitive running days won hundreds of races throughout the U.S., until a broken leg in 1987 ended his career.
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In his professional life, Mr. Blewett began working at APG and Edgewood Arsenal in 1971 as an engineer and senior scientist for the Department of the Army’s Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear Defense program, also known as CBRN.
Over his 35-year career, Mr. Blewett was a leading military expert on protecting servicemembers from hazards on the battlefield and from terrorist attacks, according to Mr. Resta.
Mr. Blewett also traveled around the world advising U.S. allies on how to protect their countries from such terrorist attacks. After leaving APG and Edgewood in 2008, he worked as a senior scientist for Battelle Inc. until retiring in 2012.
“Bill was problem-oriented and he liked that and applied that approach to community sports issues,” Mr. Resta said in a telephone interview. “He identified himself as a runner and he approached running like an engineer. He showed me a running diary that dated all the way back to his high school days.”
He began his weekly running column for The Aegis in 1981, and also was a stringer for The Baltimore Sun covering Harford County football.
“He was a big noise in Harford County,” said Todd Holden, a former Aegis staff writer and Harford County historian.
“He was a good writer and an avid runner and influenced a lot of people who are now into their 60s and got them into running,” Mr. Holden said. “He never tried to sell me on running, I’m no runner, but he did a great job waking up a lot of people in the county to the benefits of running.”
Mr. Blewett enjoyed coaching young runners. He played a pivotal role in establishing and sustaining the Bel Air Recreation Committee’s Bill Brown Youth Cross Country and Harford Junior Track series.
“He was well-known in the running world and was always trying to find stuff about kids from Harford County who were excelling in the sports world,” said Randy McRoberts, who was Aegis sports editor from 1996 to 2022.
“His professionalism was unmatched and he was an outlet for a community of people with his running column,” he said.
Mr. Blewett was a longtime member of the board of the Bel Air Recreation Committee and remained so until his death. His focus, friends said, was getting kids outside, having fun and learning sports.
“We are hoping to build the Bill Blewett Field House for youth so people 20 to 30 years from now will remember Bill,” Mr. Resta said. “He gave so much to the community.”
Mr. Blewett also served in the National Guard and was a reservist for a decade.
He held a pilot’s license and enjoyed flying his Citabria airplane and was interested in aeronautics.
A visitation will be held from 9:30 a.m. until 11 a.m. Monday at Ripken Stadium, 873 Long Drive, Aberdeen, which will be followed at 11 a.m. by a celebration of life service.
Mr. Blewett’s family is requesting attendees wear their favorite running or exercise shoes with their funeral attire.
Mr. Blewett is survived by his wife of 42 years, Joann Kolarik, former executive director of Harford Habitat for Humanity; two sons, John “JD” Blewett of Nottingham and Daniel Henry Blewett of Washington; a daughter, Anne Elizabeth Arroyo of Haymarket, Virginia; two brothers, Charles Blewett of Edmond, Oklahoma, and Thomas Blewett of Chattanooga, Tennessee; a sister, Eugenia “Genie” Blewett of Lawton, Oklahoma; and three grandchildren.
