Paul G. Blazer

Paul Garrett Blazer (September 19, 1890 – December 9, 1966) was president and CEO of Ashland Oil and Refining Company (Ashland, Inc.) located in Ashland, Kentucky.

Early life Blazer was born on September 19, 1890, in New Boston, Illinois to Presbyterians David Newton Blazer and Mary Melinda Blazer (née Janes). Blazer's father's childhood home was station number three on the Underground Railroad that began at Quincy, Illinois and was described as being on "the avenue to freedom in Canada for runaway slaves from Missouri and Kentucky and hundreds of them passing through to freedom were harbored at the Blazer home." Blazer's father, his father's brother and father's sister were school teachers. His father left the teaching profession as a school principal and subsequently became the publisher of the nearby Aledo Times-Record regional newspaper.

At the age of 12, Blazer began selling magazine subscriptions for The Saturday Evening Post and Ladies Home Journal, and he eventually hired a full-time secretary. In 1962, Blazer Hall was opened as the Georgia M Blazer Hall [dormitory] for Women in tribute to her 21 years of service on the board. She also served on Kentucky's Council on Public Higher Education.

Oil industry career In 1920, Paul Blazer went to work as vice president of the Great Southern Oil & Refining Company in Lexington, Kentucky. In 1924 he joined the Swiss Oil Company of Lexington and was in charge of constructing and managing the operations of Ashland Refining Co. in Ashland, Kentucky. Blazer's work managing the company meant that from 1924 to 1957 he was regarded as head of the Ashland family. The oil industry sent representatives, including Blazer, to Washington D.C. Blazer served as chairman of the United States Department of the Interior's Petroleum Code Survey Committee on Small Business Enterprise, referred to as the "Blazer Committee". (1933–1936).

While working for the Department of Interior July 11, 1941, Secretary Ickes appointed Blazer to District 2's General [oversight] Committee, the Supply and Distribution Committee and Chairman of the District 2 Refining Committee.

Blazer kept Ashland Oil and Refining Company active in the Ohio Valley Improvement Association, which was located in the Cincinnati Federal Reserve Bank Building. The projects approved construction of 19 new dual locks and high-lift dams (current list of locks and dams of the Ohio River). The Program contained eight new projects in the portion of the Ohio River owned by Kentucky, and contained the rare structural plans for a bridge over the top of the Greenup County, Kentucky dam. The Greenup Dam is just down river from Ashland was known at the time as The Paul G. Blazer Dam, received site priority. and was built in the 1950s without completion of the bridge top.

Blazer appeared before the U.S. Congress on several occasions testifying on proposed regulations affecting the oil industry and in 1956 testified against a proposed tax on use of the nation's waterways. Blazer, at age 70, was elected chairman and president of the newly established National Waterways Conference in 1960 and re-elected as chairman in 1961. Centre College, Danville KY: Honorary degree (1950); and in 1953, Blazer filled the vacancy on the Centre College Board of Trustees caused by the death of his longtime friend Chief Justice Fred M. Vinson, of the U.S. Supreme Court.

Other recognitions included: the alumni citation of Useful Citizen (public service) by the University of Chicago in 1949 for his leadership in the call for Kentucky's Constitutional Convention, on March 6, 1960. Influenced by his family's abolitionist heritage and in his relationship with U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice Fred M. Vinson on the social importance of racial integration in education, the Kentucky State College library was Blazer's first acceptance of a public naming request. Blazer's personal contributions to Kentucky State College initiated the student loan fund in 1950 and his May 29, 1960 Kentucky State College commencement address on integration and educational advancement was recorded in the June 28, 1960 United States Congressional Record.

School naming request (1957) In 1957 Blazer again played a significant role in the Ashland area's higher education opportunities with his work towards the University of Kentucky taking over the teaching and day-to-day operations from the Ashland Independent School District's Board of Education for the Ashland Junior College.

Death Blazer died on December 9, 1966, at the age of 76.

The Stuart Blazer Foundation (1952–1975) After 20 years of Ashland area grants, the Stuart Blazer Foundation was terminated in the 1970s. On the recommendation of Paul and Georgia's son Paul Jr. and daughter Doris, one-half of the remaining funds paid for the initial restoration of the Paramount Movie Theater (Paramount Arts Center) in Ashland (associated with Paul Jr.) and one-half of the remaining funds paid for the building and one year's operation of the Ashland Tennis Center before being given to the city of Ashland (associated with Doris).

The Blazer family funded the Blazer Lecture Series at the University of Kentucky in memory of their son Stuart.