{{Short description|American graphic designer (1922–2017)}} {{Infobox person | image = Robert Blakeley (28blakeley6).png | name = Robert Blakeley | birth_date = {{birth date|1922|08|30}} | birth_place = Ogden, Utah, U.S. | death_date = {{death date and age|2017|10|25|1922|08|30}} | death_place = Jacksonville, Florida, U.S. | known_for = Design of fallout shelter sign | module = {{infobox military person | embed = yes | allegiance = {{flag|USA}} | service_years = 1943–1945; 1951–1952 | branch = Marine Corps }} }} '''Robert Wilson Blakeley''' (August 30, 1922 – October 25, 2017) was an American graphic designer, known for making the fallout shelter sign. While working for the Army Corps of Engineers, Blakeley designed the sign as a civil defense measure during the Cold War.
Born in Ogden, Utah, Blakeley attended public schools and served with the Marine Corps, seeing combat during World War II. He graduated from the University of California, Berkeley, in 1954 and was the president of Toastmasters.
==Personal life==
Blakeley was born on August 30, 1922, in Ogden, Utah, to Robert G. Blakeley and Elsie Jean (Wilson) Blakeley. One of four children, he attended Weber College and Utah State University.<ref name="NYT">{{cite web|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/27/obituaries/robert-blakeley-whose-fallout-shelter-sign-symbolized-the-cold-war-dies-at-95.html|title=Robert Blakeley, Whose Fallout Shelter Sign Symbolized Cold War, Dies at 95|first=Robert D.|last=McFadden|date=October 27, 2017|work=The New York Times|accessdate=October 28, 2017}}</ref>
In 1944, he married Shirley Jeane Brown, with whom he had one son, David Bruce Eppenberger. Robert and Jeane divorced some time later. In 1952, he married Dorothy McArthur, with whom he had two children, Dorothy "Dot" Carver and Robert. She died in 1992.<ref name="Wash"/> In 2003, he married Irene Allan Davis. Blakeley died in a Brookdale senior living community in Jacksonville, Florida, on October 25, 2017,<ref name="NYT"/> from complications from a bacterial infection.<ref name="Wash">{{cite news|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/obituaries/robert-blakeley-whose-fallout-shelter-sign-was-a-grim-reminder-of-nuclear-war-dies-at-95/2017/10/29/a1e3e8fa-bcb9-11e7-959c-fe2b598d8c00_story.html|title=Robert Blakeley, whose fallout shelter sign was a grim reminder of nuclear war, dies at 95|last=Smith|first=Harrison|date=October 29, 2017|accessdate=November 23, 2017|newspaper=The Washington Post}}</ref>
==Career==
In 1943, Blakeley joined the Marine Corps. During the 1945 invasion of Iwo Jima during World War II, Blakeley was a sergeant major of the 4th Marine Division. He later served during the Korean War in 1951 and 1952,<ref name="NYT"/> one of the "Chosin Few" at the Battle of Chosin Reservoir.<ref name="Wash"/>
At the University of California, Berkeley, he studied architecture and graduated in 1954 with a master's degree in business administration. He worked for two years with the Veterans Administration before joining the Army Corps of Engineers in 1956. With the Corps, Blakeley led administrative work for over 60 construction projects as its civilian manager.<ref name="NYT"/> He retired from the Corps as chief of administrative services in 1981.<ref name="Wash"/>
He joined Toastmasters International in 1958, becoming its international president from 1976 to 1977.<ref name="NYT"/> Blakeley helped change the organization's bylaws to allow women to join and expanded the group by traveling across the U.S., Africa, and Europe.<ref name="Wash"/>
===Fallout shelter sign=== {{See also|Fallout shelter}} [[File:United States of America Fallout shelter sign.jpg|thumb|right|x250px|A fallout shelter sign at the Smithsonian in Washington, D.C.]]
Major General Keith R. Barney tasked Blakeley with creating the fallout shelter sign in 1961. Blakeley decided that to be most durable the signs must be made from metal. As they needed to be easy to find in the dark, he chose to use orange-yellow and black, with an image created by graphic design firm Blair Inc. and possibly based on an image from on Clarence P. Hornung's ''Handbook of Designs'', consisting of three upside-down equilateral triangles on a black background and the words "Fallout Shelter" in large letters.<ref name="NYT"/><ref name="History">{{cite web|url=http://www.history.com/news/nuclear-fallout-shelters-were-never-going-to-work|title=Nuclear Fallout Shelters Were Never Going to Work|first=Robert|last=Klara|date=October 16, 2017|work=History|accessdate=October 28, 2017}}</ref> Blakeley also wanted the reflective paint to easily illuminate from a cigarette lighter.<ref name="History"/><ref>{{cite web|url=https://gizmodo.com/where-did-the-iconic-fallout-shelter-symbol-come-from-5814592|title=Where Did The Iconic Fallout Shelter Symbol Come From?|first=Kwame|last=Opam|date=June 22, 2011|work=Gizmodo|accessdate=October 28, 2017}}</ref>
His design was approved by Special Assistant to the Secretary of the Army Powell Pierpoint. Blakeley suggested a $700,000 production run of one million interior signs by Alfray Products from Coshocton, Ohio and 400,000 exterior signs by Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing (3M).<ref name="NYT"/><ref name="History"/>
Blakeley debuted the completed products at the Westchester County Office Building in White Plains, New York, on October 4, 1961. The signs became an icon for the anti-war protests and counterculture of the 1960s and were featured in popular culture, including Bob Dylan's 1965 album cover for ''Bringing It All Back Home''.<ref name="NYT"/> Blakeley recounted a story from when his children were young and saw the ubiquitous signs:{{Quote|We'd go down the street, and one of the kids would say, "Hey, Dad, there's one of your signs." But, you know, other than that it's just like many of the other things that happen in life. It's just like one of those routine things.<ref name="NYT"/>}}
==References== {{Reflist}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Blakeley, Robert}} Category:1922 births Category:2017 deaths Category:American graphic designers Category:American poster artists Category:Weber State University alumni Category:Utah State University alumni Category:Sergeants Major of the Marine Corps Category:United States Marines Category:4th Marine Division (United States) Category:UC Berkeley College of Environmental Design alumni Category:United States Army Corps of Engineers personnel Category:Artists from Ogden, Utah Category:Military personnel from Utah Category:United States Marine Corps personnel of World War II Category:United States Marine Corps personnel of the Korean War