Wilson Blake, 90

Wilson Blake, born Aug. 29, 1934, in San Francisco, Calif., was sent to his eternal home Dec. 21, 2024, due to pneumonia and heart complications. His eldest daughter, Jodie Rape, was honored to be his caretaker for the last season of his life; he passed peacefully at his home in Clarkston, Wash., surrounded by his loved ones.

Wilson was the middle child of three boys — Clarke, Wilson and Donn — who loved their childhood adventuring in San Francisco. However, their parents realized too much mischief could be had in the city and moved the family to an 830-acre cattle ranch in Glen Ellen, Calif., where Wilson graduated from Sonoma Valley High School in 1951. He was an outstanding scholar and lettered in four sports (football, track, tennis and basketball) while maintaining a 4.0 GPA. He received a full-ride football scholarship to the University of California, Berkeley, but never played due to an injury. Before attending UCB, he entered the Coast Guard Academy, and after graduating from Berkeley, he tested into the U.S. Army Officer Candidate School and graduated as a second lieutenant. He was also a member of the 101st Airborne Division (Screaming Eagles). Wilson returned to Berkeley and earned his Master's in Geology, married his first wife, Julie Anne Blake, and had his first three children. He completed his Ph.D. at the Colorado School of Mines, where his family grew with two additional children. 

A proud father of a son and four daughters, he moved the family to the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) in 1972, where he worked for the Old Belgium Mining Company, which was known as Gecamines. Upon returning to the U.S., the family settled in Hayden Lake, Idaho, in 1974, where Wilson thrived as an independent geophysicist and consulting mining engineer. He worked for the deepest mine in North America and several in North Idaho, providing data that protected miners from catastrophic cave-ins. He traveled to mines across the world (South America, Africa, Russia and Canada), installing technology to keep miners safe from mine bursts. He was a genius whose knowledge of the structure of rock dynamics prevented innumerable deaths of miners worldwide.

Wilson was a fantastic storyteller and cherished sharing colorful tales with his beautifully blended family of his beloved five children, three cherished stepchildren, 21 grandchildren and 15 great-grandchildren. Recently, he reveled in having several 90th birthday celebrations where he stood up and captured the crowd with stories of what he witnessed in his 90 years (flying on the Concord, watching an atomic explosion, and riding his bike on the Golden Gate Bridge the day it opened). His hearty laugh, with his head thrown back, will be a forever memory of his zest for life; there is nothing he loved more than sharing stories and laughter with his family and friends. 

Wilson is survived by his brother, Donn Blake, married to Mary; his children, Jodie Rape; Kira Bird, married to Karl; Reyla Zumhofe, married to Slade; Ann Albini, married to Bruce; and Tesa Gagliardi, married to John. Wilson’s legacy will carry on with his many children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren. He was preceded in death by his parents, Carol and Milton Blake; his wife of 35 years, Judi Blake; his older brother, Clarke Blake; and three of his children, Chris Blake, John Rape and Hilary Hamilton. 

A private celebration of Wilson Blake’s life will take place this summer where his ashes will be spread (with other family members who’ve gone before him) at a small, sentimental gravesite near Priest Lake, Idaho.