Gary F. Blanchard *66

Gary Blanchard, who spent the past 50 years in Burlington County, N.J., working in the public interest, died Jan. 23, 2016, at age 77.

After high school in 1956, Blanchard enlisted in the Navy. Upon discharge, he began working as a police reporter for the St. Petersburg Times in Florida. He received a publisher’s scholarship to attend the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, from which he graduated with honors in 1964. He then attended the Woodrow Wilson School at Princeton and graduated in 1966 with a master’s degree in public affairs.

Remaining in New Jersey, Blanchard worked as a journalist and photographer for the Burlington County Times, before founding Blanchard Associates, a management-consulting firm. He was the project manager for the Burlington Township municipal building.

Blanchard also worked for the state of New Jersey for 16 years as a management trainer. He helped establish what has become the certified public-manager program at Rutgers University. Locally and nationally, he was an avid supporter of many social and political organizations.

He is survived by three children, seven grandchildren, and his companion of 25 years, Marge Schwartz. For 27 years, he had been married to Juanita, the mother of his children.

Graduate memorials are prepared by the APGA.