Cliff Buchan
News Editor

There is no stopping John Blackford, not when it comes to serving the Lord or the country.

Come noon Saturday, youíll find Pastor Blackford at VFW Post 4210 in Forest Lake as guest speaker for the communityís annual Veterans Day program.

Come Sunday, youíll find Pastor Blackford at Forest Hills United Methodist Church working with the adult Sunday School program or delivering the Sunday sermon.

Thatís nothing new, really. Itís been that way since 1945 for John Blackford, a Minneapolis native who has spent his life as a minister serving churches in North Dakota and Minnesota. But heís been more than a church man.

Blackford spent more than a year of active duty in the Navy as a chaplain near the end of World War II and his attachment to veterans organizations remains loyal and strong. Each Nov. 11 and also on Memorial Day, Blackford can be found sharing his wisdom with the public during community observances.

ìI love our community,î the retired pastor says.

At 85, Blackfordís community is today the Forest Lake and Chisago Lakes areas where he and his wife Tulida have lived since 1959.

CHURCH, MILITARY

Blackford was just 17 when he graduated early from Minneapolis South High School in 1938. He spent the next four years at Hamline University in St. Paul studying math and physics before moving on to the Asbury Theological Seminary in Wilmore, KY.

The son of a Minneapolis Moline worker who served with the Armyís 151st Field Artillery in France during World War I, Blackford did not turn his back on military service. After completing his bachelor of theology degree in Kentucky, Blackford enlisted in the Navy and accepted a commission in the chaplainís corps as a lieutenant second grade.

ìI think I was the youngest chaplain in the Navy when I went in,î Blackford said.

ìThat was near the end of the war. I was given combat training and we did two Atlantic cruises,î he said. The training in 1945 was to prepare for the land invasion of Japan, a step that never happened after two atomic bombs were dropped on Japan, forcing the surrender and the end of the world war.

Blackford was assigned as a chaplain to the Marine Corps, stationed in Norfolk, VA. He initially was assigned to recruit training, providing guidance and counseling to recruits who were 17 and 18.

He also had duty at Camp Perry near Quantico, VA where he was assigned as chaplain to German prisoners of war who had been brought to the United States.

He spoke no German but ministered through an interpreter. ìThe German people were respectful,î he said. ìA lot of them didnít want to be in Hitlerís army. They were treated so well here and appreciated it.î

It was a rewarding and challenging time for the young minister, Blackford recalled.

He was still single in 1945 and immersed himself in his work. ìI pretty much lived in my office,î he said.

In dealing with hundreds and hundreds of young Naval and Marine recruits, it was Blackford who was the listening post for troubled sailors. And there were times when he was the harbinger of bad news.

When a parent or close relative of a recruit had died, it was Blackford who delivered the message that had been sent through military channels.

But one huge upside of his stint on active duty was the chance to preach before large crowds of military personnel with 1500 to 2000 in the chapel for Sunday service.

ìI was like a Billy Graham before Billy Graham,î Blackford says, looking back on those services. ìWhen I would give the invitation (to accept Christ), sometimes 300 would come forward.î

HOMEFRONT SERVICE

Blackford was sent home in July of 1946 and with his divinity degree in hand, joined Park Avenue Methodist Church in Minneapolis as associate pastor. It was there that he met his wife to be and saw his second extension of military duty.

In 1948 as a Naval Reserve chaplain, Blackford was called to perform eight funerals at Fort Snelling National Cemetery for servicemen killed in the war and whose families had requested that their remains be brought home for internment under a special government program.

ìThe first war burials were at Fort Snelling in the summer of 1948,î he said. ìThis was an important event.î

On May 7 of 1948 he married Tulida Klein of Litchfield who had spent from 1944 to 1947 at the Hamline Asbury School of Nursing as part of the cadet nursing corps.

That same year, Blackford was sent from Park Avenue to New Rockford, ND, where he spent the next three years as pastor of Methodist churches in three small prairie towns.

By 1951, the Blackfords were sent east, this time to lead the Methodist congregation in Hastings. He was pastor there for eight years. He was in Hastings when the church marked its centennial in 1956 and helped pave the wave for the groundbreaking efforts in the late 1950s for a new church facility.

In 1959, Blackford was sent to Lindstrom as pastor of the First Methodist Church which became First United Methodist Church in 1968.

It was in Lindstrom where the Blackfordís four children ó Rebecca, James, Elizabeth and Joel ó finished their high school education. They have presented their parents with 10 grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.

He retired from the Lindstrom church in 1984. Tulida Blackford retired four years later after working 29 years in all at Chisago Lakes Hospital where she was a surgical nurse and director of the convalescent unit.

Blackford never fully retired in 1984, however.

After moving to Forest Lake 22 years ago, they have become members of Forest Hills United Methodist Church here. Blackford continues to work with the Sunday School program and as an associate pastor will preach a Sunday sermon from time to time.

He has continued his work as a regular religion columnist for the Forest Lake Times where he writes twice each month on important religion topics of the day on a local and national scale.

BIG FOR VETS

He has retained close links with the VFW in Lindstrom and his many friends in Forest Lake who are with Post 4210 or American Legion Post 225.

Each year at Memorial Day he is a guest speaker at programs in the Chisago Lakes area. This year, he will speak at the noon public program in Forest Lake at VFW Post 4210, 556 SW 12th St.

ìPatriotism is also a real ministry,î says the son of a World War I vet who fought in the war to end all wars.

Serving those who serve in the military has been just one mission in Blackfordís walk through life.

There have also been more than 5000 sermons, 230 weddings, 572 funerals and 562 baptisms recorded meticulously by this man of the cloth during more than 60 years of service to God and country.

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Forest Lake Times
P.O. Box 218
880 SW 15 St.
Forest Lake, MN 55025
651-464-4601
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