Ralph Erskine Blakely, Jr., died of lymphoma on August 31, 2023, in Mount Pleasant,
- He was born on May 7, 1945, in Rock Hill, SC, to Ralph Erskine Blakely and Ollie Mae
Freeman Blakely. Ralph grew up in Rock Hill in a close-knit family. From childhood he was
fascinated by the sounds and structure of pipe organs. At nursery school he amazed the staff by
building an organ from blocks, which he “played” with panache; at church he refused to leave the
sanctuary until the last notes of the postlude had sounded. He attended Winthrop Training School
and graduated from Rock Hill High School. He received the BA from Davidson College, where
he majored in Music and Classics. After a brief period of graduate study in organ, he apprenticed
himself to an organbuilder in Charlotte, NC. He then founded Blakely Organbuilders on Depot
Street in Davidson, which built and maintained pipe organs in the Southeast, from Georgia to
Virginia. Following their retirement, he and his partner, Wilmer Hayden Welsh, the Davidson
Chapel organist and professor of music, moved in 1994 to Tradd Street in Charleston. There
Ralph became a keen supporter of the Gibbes Museum of Art, where he served on the Board of
Directors; he was also a member of the Board of Directors of the Storm Eye Institute and an
active supporter of Davidson College. In downtown Charleston he was a familiar figure as he
walked his Great Dane. After Bill’s death in 2008, Ralph revived his interest in Greek and
translated Homer’s Iliad into English prose as a memorial to him; it was published in 2015 by
Forge Press. In 2021 he moved to South Bay in Mount Pleasant and in 2022 to the Shem Creek
Health Center at South Bay.
Ralph is survived by his sisters, Mary Blakely Speer (Eugene Speer) of Cranbury, NJ, and
Jennie Blakely Benton (Douglas Benton) of Church Hill, TN; one nephew, David Benton, a
great-niece, Bailee Benton, and a great-nephew, Waylon Benton, all of Church Hill. The family
is grateful to Paula Singleton for her devoted care of Ralph in these last months. Burial will be
private. Memorials may be sent to the Storm Eye Institute of the Medical University of South
Carolina or to Davidson College.
A gaveside service will be held at 2;00 PM, Thursday, September 14, 2023 at Laurelwood Cemetery in Rock Hill, SC 29730.