Richard Blews

Rev. Blews was Pennsylvania state chairman in 1962.

The following is based on articles in the May-June, 1974 Pennsylvania Challenge by M.C. Baker and Woodson W. Collins.
 
Rev. Dr. Richard R(utherford) Blews was born at New Castle, Pennsylvania on 5 December 1880 and died at Elwood City, Pennsylvania on 5 April 1974.  He graduated from New Castle High School, received a BA from Greenville College, an MA from Columbia University, and a PhD from Cornell University.  He also studied at the University of Berlin.   He taught ancient Greek and was a Dean at Greenville.  He was Professor of Classics and Ancient History at Cornell.  His dissertation was on Roman law, and he wrote a textbook on the application of the Municipal Code of Law of Julius Caesar to the Roman colonies.  He was President of Evansville College.
     In 1924, he felt a call to the pastorate, resigned his post at Cornell University, and took up a career as a Free Methodist Church minister.  He served as a District Superintendent, a Delegate to the General Conference, was a contributing editor to the Free Methodist church magazine, and wrote a collection of biographies of the denomination's deceased bishops, Master Workmen. 
     He was Chairman of the Pennsylvania Prohibition Committee for many years and in 1948 was founding editor of its Pennsylvania Challenge newsletter. 
     During WWII, Blews worked for Curtis-Wright Aeronautics and was the inventor of a mechanism for synchronizing the propellers on 4-engine aircraft.
     He married Iva Ostrander on 14 august, 1914; they had 2 sons and a daughter.

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