Robert Gordon Blakesley, 93, passed away peacefully at his home with his wife, Alina and furry friend, Lucky by his side on Oct. 21, 2025.\

Born in New York City on April 22, 1932, Robert was the son of Robert Ira and Elizabeth Robson Blakesley. His parents were attending Union Theological Seminary at the time — his father would become a Congregational minister and his mother a director of religious education, forming the foundation for Robert’s lifelong exploration of meaning and faith.

He shared a birthday with his beloved younger sister, Betty Lou, born exactly four years later — a fact he recalled with affectionate humor throughout his life. Known affectionately as a “PK” (preacher’s kid), he was named after Dr. James Gordon Gilkey, a close colleague of his father.

Robert attended high school in Wellesley, Massachusetts, where he studied English in a three-year advanced class with future poet Sylvia Plath. Sylvia wrote the lyrics for their class song, and Robert composed the music. He played cornet in the school band and was also on the gymnastics team.

His love for nature was nurtured early on through hikes with his father on Mt. Belknap in New Hampshire. As a teenager, he worked summers on Star Island in the Isles of Shoals at the Oceanic Hotel, where he experienced community living and personal expression through talent shows and shared labor. These experiences planted the seeds for his later spiritual and communal journeys.

He studied at Amherst College, where he deepened his commitment to social service, spending one summer working in a migrant labor camp in Oregon. There, he met his first wife, Barbara. They were married by Robert’s father the day after his graduation. Robert pursued a master’s degree in city planning at Columbia University. He and Barbara moved to Portland, Oregon, where they raised two children: Annette and Steven. Robert worked as a city planner for the University of Oregon, City of Portland, and the Columbia Region Association of Governments, where he helped lay the groundwork for the eventual creation of urban growth boundary, and metropolitan rapid transit system. He loved Oregon for its natural beauty, climbing 11,000-foot Mount Hood five times, as well as other peaks in the Cascades, and Mt. Olympus. He passed on his love of nature and the out-of-doors to his son and daughter.

Always a spiritual seeker, Robert was drawn to the Findhorn Foundation, a spiritual community based on meditation in Scotland, where he lived for four years working with his hands as a carpenter and stonemason. It was there he met Alina, with whom he shared a strong spiritual connection. On his return to the states he and his wife and stepson Paul lived in Rome, Maine. Robert worked at the State Planning Office. He organized and became executive director of Maine's Americorp Commission for Community Service. When Robert inherited his father's summer cottage in Bayville, with the guidance of the Shelter Institute, he transformed it into a year-round home. Robert especially loved Bayville for its swimming, sea kayaking, sailing and the community of folks who came year after year. He created and maintained a Bayville website and was president of the Bayville Improvement Association for several years. With the Boothbay Region Land Trust he created a one-mile trail around the edge of the land trust's parcel.

Robert traveled to England, Scotland, and Japan, where he visited his son and first granddaughter while his son was teaching English. One of the most profound journeys of his life was a trip to Poland and Belarus with his wife Alina, her mother Irena, and his sister Betty Lou. The purpose of the trip was to take Irena to re-visit the property in Belarus she called home before being uprooted by the Russians and moved by rail in cattle cars to work camps in the frozen Siberian Gulag. Robert was deeply moved learning of this firsthand of the suffering and loss they endured. Two other trips to Poland with Alina further enriched his understanding of her heritage and deepened his empathy.

For eight years, Robert participated in writing workshops on Star Island — a place dear to his heart. He published his memoirs in 2013, "Eveningtime, Family Roots, Findhorn and Finding Home: A Personal Journey," a series of poetic vignettes written in blank verse. In 2017, he released a limited edition of poems and reflections celebrating a lifetime of inner and outer exploration.

Robert is survived by: his loving wife of 45 years, Alina Blakesley; his daughter and partner, Annette Walton and Heidi Fredrickson; his son, Steven Blakesley; his stepson and wife, Paul Blakesley and Meredith Grimes-Blakesley; four grandchildren: granddaughters Bridgette and Charlotte, and grandsons William and Oliver; his sister, Betty Lou Parbery; his niece, Sharon Parbery; his nephews: Greg Parbery, Gordon Parbery, and Doug Parbery.

Robert Blakesley was a man of thought and spirit — a quiet adventurer who lived with intention, compassion, and grace. His life’s work was not just in city plans or published poems, but in the lives he touched and the hearts he opened. He will be remembered for his humility, strength, and spiritual depth.