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Crossposted from H-LAW@H-NET.MSU.EDU BY TIM R. A. COOPER YDN Staff Reporter Published 2/15/00 John W. Blassingame GRD '71, professor of history and African and African-American Studies, died Sunday at his home in New Haven. He was 59. Perhaps best known for his work editing the Frederick Douglass papers and his contribution to the understanding of American slave culture, Blassingame -- who taught for 29 years at Yale -- also served as chairman of the African-American Studies Program. Blassingame had suffered from a condition that cut off oxygen from his brain and that left him hospitalized from April until mid-December. The cause of Blassingame's death was not immediately determined, but his family said he stopped breathing and his heartbeat became irregular just after 3 p.m. Sunday. Attempts to resuscitate him at his home and at St. Rafael's Hospital, where he was soon transported, were unsuccessful. Blassingame was discharged from Gaylord Hospital in Wallingford on Dec. 14. He was then brought home and began a series of physical and speech exercises with trained therapists to recover some of his motor abilities. John Blassingame Jr. said his father had made tremendous strides in recovering from his condition. Today, he was scheduled to take tests to determine whether he would be able to swallow solid foods. "He was never without somebody that loved him," Blassingame Jr. said. "[The Gaylord Hospital physicians] were very optimistic ... even though they knew it was going to be a long haul." David Montgomery, a history professor emeritus and long-time friend, called Blassingame's work "instrumental" in getting African and African-American Studies programs started at Yale in the late 1960s. Friends and family of Blassingame said the late professor had a close relationship with Yale historian C. Vann Woodward, who died in December. Blassingame Jr. said Woodward, who was a renowned historian of the South, was his father's mentor. Due to his condition, a "disappointed" Blassingame was unable to attend Woodward's funeral on Feb. 5, his son said. "They were extremely close, and you can underscore extremely," Montgomery said. In the days leading up to his death, Blassingame became more and more tired, his family said. Late last week a friend Blassingame had made while staying at Yale-New Haven Hospital last spring died. "Dad got a little depressed" after reading the friend's obituary, Blassingame Jr. said. The sadness caused by the deaths of the friend, of Woodward and of others around him may have hastened Blassingame's passing, his son said. Tia Blassingame recalled her father's selflessness, and said she was "shocked" by his sudden passing. "I think back to how much he really cared about everybody," Tia Blassingame said. "His life's work was making the University great and teaching his students." Henry Louis Gates Jr. '73, director of Harvard University's African-American Studies Program, called Blassingame one of his great mentors. "[Blassingame] was one of my oldest and dearest friends," Gates said. "It's a very, very sad day." Blassingame earned his doctorate at Yale in 1971, and has since remained at the University. He is survived by his wife Teasie, his daughter Tia and his son John, Jr.
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