Floyd A. Blake

Floyd A. Blake, 84, of Centennial, Colorado passed peacefully from this life on June 12, 2012, at Porter Hospice. Floyd was born April 21, 1928 in Akron, Ohio and attended schools in Ohio and Denver. At

14, during WWII, he joined a group of students who built their own wooden glider and learned to fly it. As Floyd joked, “I learned to fly before I could drive.”

He graduated from South High School in 1946 and began college at the University of Denver. Floyd also attended one semester at Hiram College in Ohio and played football on the very first team ever coached by the legendary football coach Steve Belichick.

Upon graduation from DU as a mechanical engineer in 1949, he began his career working on locomotive diesel engines at Fairbanks-Morse in Wisconsin. Floyd married Connie Peck in January, 1950 at Washington Park United Methodist Church in Denver and began what he described as “fifty-nine years of happily-ever-after.”

Floyd’s career soared from trains and power plants to airplane engines and spacecraft power systems, before he began to specialize in solar power generation, including the first “power tower“. His endeavors took him all over the US and the world including projects in France, Switzerland, Italy, Saudi Arabia and Hawaii.

A wonderful family man, Floyd worked and played with his children and grandchildren on many projects from scouting to boat building, camping and fishing trips, family vacations, games and sports. Each new grandchild and great-grandchild were welcomed as great gifts to him. He loved his family dearly.

The highlight of Floyd’s career began with the establishment of the Blake Laboratory for solar power development. With initial contracts from Northrup, Inc., the lab eventually became Arco Power Systems, a part of Arco Solar in 1980. He gathered a group of outstanding talent for the lab who became good friends. Floyd thought it was a wonderful reflection on the lab that, even though it closed in 1985, the Arco Group continued to get together annually for the past 26 years.

Floyd retired in 1988 to spend more time with his beloved Connie, and they traveled extensively on cruises and to visit far-flung family. Their favorite retirement pastime was going to the mountains to play poker, at which they both did quite well. With Connie’s passing in 2009, Floyd stayed closer to home and visited her grave daily, bringing her flowers and reading poetry to her. Floyd leaves behind family and friends who will miss him greatly, but rejoice that he and Connie are reunited once more.

Floyd was preceded in death by his parents, Roy and Grace Blake of Northglenn, a son, John W. Blake and a grandson Jean-Richard Blake.

He is survived by: his sister Margaret (Peg) Carvalho of Northglenn; four children, Richard R. Blake, Diana Blake Gray, James A. Blake and Ellen J. Thornton; eleven grandchildren; three great-grandchildren; and numerous nieces and nephews.

Services will be held at Olinger Chapel Hill (6601 S. Colorado Blvd., Centennial, Colorado) on June 23 at 2:00 p.m. with a reception to follow at Washington Park United Methodist Church where Floyd and Connie were married at 1955 E. Arizona, Denver, Colorado.