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Capital Mourns Loss of Former President and Law School Dean Josiah H. Blackmore (1934-2007)
“Josiah was a man who was larger than life. His wisdom, leadership and charisma will be remembered by us all. He was an incredible legal mind, mentor, teacher, scholar and friend. Today, we lost one of Capital’s “greats”, but his contributions to this Law School and University will have a lasting impact,” said Dean Jack A. Guttenberg.
On Saturday, Sept. 29, at the Worthington Presbyterian Church, family, friends and colleagues gathered for the funeral service of Josiah. Professor Dan Kobil was one of three individuals asked to speak about Josiah. [ Read Professor Kobil's eulogy ]
In lieu of flowers, the family requests that donations be made in memory of Josiah to Capital University or Worthington Presbyterian Church. Contributions may be designated to the Professor Emeritus & Dean Josiah H. Blackmore II Chair in Legal Education, which was established in 2006. Leave a comment or your favorite memory of Josiah. Read comments others have left about Josiah.
Josiah H. Blackmore II was named president of Capital University in 1988, following a year of service as interim president of the university. His affiliation with Capital began in 1969 as an adjunct professor of law and then the following year, he left private practice and joined the faculty as a full-time professor. In 1979, he was named acting dean of the Law School, followed by his appointment as dean in 1980. Josiah was a recognized authority in the area of evidence, having co-authored the Ohio Evidence Law Treatise and having served on the Ohio Supreme Court Rules Advisory Committee. He was a recipient of the Ohio Municipal League award for service to the legal profession. He was a member of the American Bar Association, Ohio State Bar Association, American Law Institute and other legal and educational organizations. He retired from the office of the president in 1998, but continued to serve on the law faculty as Professor Emeritus until 2006. Through the years, he taught Evidence, Civil Procedure, Legal Systems, Professional Responsibility, Justice, and Conflicts of Law. He was the first holder of Capital Law School’s Newton D. Baker/Baker & Hostetler Chair of Law. During his career, Josiah was the author of numerous articles addressing legal, higher education, ethics and international issues. He received a bachelor’s degree in government from Miami University in 1956, and a juris doctor cum laude from The Ohio State University College of Law in 1962. He received numerous honors, including recognition as Capital University Law School’s Outstanding Professor in 1977, the President’s Award from the Ohio Academy of Trial Lawyers, and the Columbus Bar Association Liberty Bell Award. He was named a 1991 Golden Achievement Award recipient by Doctors Hospital and was presented with the Living Faith Award in Education from the Metropolitan Area Church Council in 1992. He received the prestigious Order of the Coif in 1962. In November 2005, Josiah was fittingly honored by the Columbus Bar Foundation with its Presidential Award for Lifetime Service. The award recognized his lifetime commitment to the Columbus legal community. He served on both the Columbus Bar Association and Foundation boards. Ever the public servant, in summer 2004 he was appointed by Governor Bob Taft to the Ohio Ethics Commission. He was past president of the Lutheran Educational Conference of North America and past chair of the Council of College Presidents of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. (Capital University is one of the oldest and largest schools of the ELCA.) He served on the boards of Children’s Hospital; the Higher Education Council of Columbus; the Academy of Medicine of Columbus & Franklin County Foundation; the Ohio Foundation of Independent Colleges; and chair of the board of directors of the Association of Independent Colleges & Universities of Ohio.
He also was a member of the executive committee of the Collegiate Council of International Studies. He served on the board of I KNOW I CAN Inc.; chaired the Internationalization Committee of the Columbus Area Chamber of Commerce from 1991-93; and was a member of the board of governors of the Columbus Bar Association. Upon retiring from Capital’s presidency in 1998, he and his wife, Joyce, moved to a farm in Blacklick, Ohio, to raise alpacas and keep bees. In addition to his wife, he is survived by three children and four grandchildren: Anne Wessels-Paris, her husband, Mike, and her son, Alex, 17, of Cincinnati; son Josiah H. Blackmore III of Toronto, Canada; and Judith Dann, her husband, Mark, and their children, Emma, 10, Josiah, 6 and Grace, 3, of Homer, Ohio.
In spring 2006, Capital University Law School announced the goal to create an endowed faculty position in honor of Josiah Blackmore. “Since becoming Dean in July 2004, I have visited with hundreds of alumni and non-alumni who are leaders in the Ohio legal and business community. The expression of admiration, appreciation and respect for Josiah Blackmore is a consistent theme that I hear repeatedly, said Dean Jack A. Guttenberg. The Law School was proud to announce the goal of establishing The Professor Emeritus & Dean Josiah H. Blackmore II Chair in Legal Education, to honor Josiah’s innumerable contributions to Capital University Law School and to the legal profession as a whole. By creating this permanently endowed academic chair in honor of Josiah, the Law School will be able to strengthen its faculty by recruiting and retaining professors who are dedicated to legal education. The Blackmore Chair funding committee is led J. Miles Gibson, L’78 and includes: Jeffrey A. Grossman, L’72, James. K. Hunter, III, L’73, Teresa L. Liston, L’81, Barbara J. Lucks, L’76, Robert J. Weiler, L’83, and Randolph C. Wiseman, L’74. A fully-funded academic chair can be established with gifts, multi-year pledges, and/or deferred planned gifts totaling $1.5 million.
In 2006, Capital University Law School Dean Jack A. Guttenberg and the Law School Alumni Association created the Josiah H. Blackmore II Dean’s Award to recognize outstanding service to Capital University Law School and, more specifically, to the dean’s office. The recipient is selected by the dean and the award is presented at the Annual Alumni Awards Lunch held in the spring. Previous Recipients
On p. 75: Blackmore had been with the law school since the summer of 1969, when he became an adjunct professor. At the time, “I was a solo, general practitioner of the law, a family lawyer,” said Blackmore, who also was a volunteer American Civil Liberties Union attorney while handling his Columbus practice of real estate closings, adoptions, workers’ compensation cases and some personal injury work. “Capital needed someone to teach a course in family law and Dean McCormac asked me if I would be interested in teaching a course in domestic relations law.” “McCormac recalled that Blackmore impressed him as “an eager, intelligent young attorney with a lot of character. … He had a good sense of humor, and he was one I liked immediately. I thought he … was the type of person we were looking for at Capital.” … “Blackmore’s original goal was not focused on teaching, however. He wanted to be on the bench and in 1968 and 1973 he ran losing races for municipal court judge. Capital had just started its day program and was hiring more full-time faculty. “I saw a chance to have an influence in being a part of what I thought was a place with good vitality,” Blackmore said…”
Not From Zeus' Head Full Blown: The Story of Civil Procedure in Ohio, THE HISTORY OF OHIO LAW (2004) Dean Francis X. Beytagh – An American Brehon, 54 Ohio State Law Journal xix 1993. Ohio Supreme Court Advisory Committee on Lawyer Discipline in Ohio, Report of the Ohio Supreme Court Advisory Committee on Lawyer Discipline in Ohio (Josiah H. Blackmore chair, 1986). Anderson's Ohio Evidence (Criminal and Civil) (Volume 2, 1980 - ), Josiah H. Blackmore & Glenn Weissenberger. Some Things About Hearsay: Article VIII, 6 Capital University Law Review 597 1976-1977. The Ohio Evidence Rules: 105 Years Of Heritage and Dilemma, 6 Capital University Law Review 533, 1976-1977.
On March 3, 2004, the Law School celebrated its 100th Anniversary at a dinner celebration at the Hyatt. Former deans were honored for the contributions they made to the Law School. View and hear Josiah’s remarks from that evening (requires MS Internet Explorer).
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On Wednesday, Sept. 26, Capital University and the legal community lost a truly great man with the passing of Josiah H. Blackmore II, Capital University’s 12th president and former Law School dean. Josiah died peacefully at the Cleveland Clinic from complications of hepatitis C. He was 72.
