February 15, 2022

Dear CSU Community,

We all have so many metaphors to use when we talk about how it feels to lose someone extraordinary from our lives.  Today, I share the grief of our community and across our state following the news that CSU System Chancellor Emeritus Joe Blake has died. The metaphor that keeps coming to my mind is that a light has gone out.

Our hearts, our prayers, and our thoughts are with Joe’s family and today and will be in the weeks and months to come. As Chancellor Frank shared earlier this afternoon, “Joe was the first full-time chancellor of our System, a tireless advocate for education, and one of the staunchest champions of our students and scholars.”

There will never be another Joe Blake.

Before I even met Joe, I heard about him from countless people, within our CSU community, across Colorado, and even nationwide.  I heard about his brilliance, his capacity for warmth and humor, his insatiable curiosity about the world, and his abiding commitment to the land grant mission. So I thought I was prepared to meet Joe—but I don’t know if anyone could truly be prepared for Joe.  I’ve rarely if ever encountered someone who had such genuine interest in everyone he met, such an appetite for stories, or such openness to being surprised and delighted by the wonderful things that education makes possible.

Joe was a great friend to Colorado State University, as a leader and as a donor, because he believed wholeheartedly and unreservedly in the possibilities that we create on our campuses—for our students, through scholarships and opportunities like the Blake Leadership Scholars—and for our faculty, through our support of their research, creativity, and scholarship.

We will continue to share public tributes to Joe Blake in the coming days, in partnership with the CSU System. And we will honor his enduring legacy by continuing to make possibilities into realities.

In short, Joe, we will keep your light alive.

Warmly,

Joyce