Obituary: Dike Blair

Former bookseller, author, and publisher Robert Dike Blair died on Saturday, October 31, 2009. Known to all as Dike Blair, he was born in New Castle, Pennsylvania, in 1919.

After serving in the military in World War II, Blair worked for the Doubleday Book Shop chain. In 1949, he founded The Vermont Book Shop in Middlebury, Vermont. He retired and sold the shop in 1993. Starting in 1951, Blair published more than a dozen books under the Vermont Books imprint. He was also the author of Books and Bedlam, the humorous, fictional adventures of a bookseller in a Vermont college town.

Blair served on the Board of Directors of the American Booksellers Association, as well as on the boards of several local Vermont organizations, including the Cornwall School and Porter Hospital.

He is survived by his wife, Reba, and three daughters: Ann Dike Blair of Portland, Oregon; Susan B. Johnson of Monterey, Massachusetts; and Kate Dike of Concord, Massachusetts, and their families.

No funeral or remembrance ceremonies are planned. The family has requested that contributions be made in Blair's memory to The Middlebury Volunteer Ambulance Association, 19 Elm St., Middlebury, VT 05753; or to The Addison County Home Health & Hospice, P.O. Box 754, Middlebury, VT 05753. A full obituary was published by the Rutland Herald.