A Florida naval hero of World War II who survived Kamikaze attacks, Earl August "Pat" Blankenship helped transform Pittsburgh during the years of peace.

The longtime chief of the city's Forestry Division and the owner of a successful tree-pruning business, Mr. Blankenship died Wednesday, Nov. 24, 2010, in Springfield, Mo. He was 86.

His legacy -- Pittsburgh's shade tree-lined streets -- continues to prosper. Many of the city's shade trees survive today because they were planted and pruned under Mr. Blankenship's stewardship.

"When he would drive, he would tell us the names of the trees," said daughter Christine Matviya of New Alexandria. "He would get so wrapped up in telling us about them, my mom would yell, 'Keep your eyes on the road!'"

Born in Jersey City, N.J., on Aug. 11, 1924, to Myrl and Beulah (Benson) Blankenship, he was raised in Longwood, Fla. Mr. Blankenship joined the Navy in World War II and was assigned to the USS Howorth, a destroyer in the Pacific Fleet. He rose to the rank of torpedo-man, 2nd class, as the crew battled from the Solomons to the Philippines, Iwo Jima and Okinawa, where a Japanese Kamikaze pilot crashed into her deck, the second to strike the ship.

"He never really talked about any of that," Matviya said. "But he spoke a little more about his experiences in the Navy as he got older. He told us about being in a typhoon and how they had to lash themselves to the ship."

After the war, Mr. Blankenship, a member of the Alpha Gamma Rho fraternity, graduated from the University of Florida at Gainesville with a degree in forestry. He married Betty Louise O'Dell of the North Side on June 9, 1948, and moved to Pittsburgh, where he toiled as a laborer in the Forestry Division.

Seven years later, he was promoted to city forester, a post he held for the next two decades. A member of the International Shade Tree Conference, he helped found the Society of Municipal Arborists in 1964. His tenure in Pittsburgh was marked by his innovations, which brought modern pruning and planting methods to the neighborhoods' shade trees and urban beautification projects.

"He was a very good man, a pleasant man, always upbeat," Matviya said. "Everyone knew him by his friendly smile. And he sure knew the tree business and his trees."

After he retired from the city, Earl A. Blankenship Tree Service continued his strict art of proper tree pruning for Oakmont Country Club and some of the best-maintained estates across the region. He returned to Florida in 1985, settling in Inverness, where his wife died in 1994.

In 1995, he wed Mildred Crane Nelson in Springfield. A longtime Mason-Shriner, he attended Willard Mt. Zion Presbyterian Church there.

Mr. Blankenship was preceded in death by daughter Rebecca Gale Leonard of Pittsburgh; granddaughter Anne Rebecca Matviya of New Alexandria; brother Robert Blankenship of Sarasota, Fla.; and sister Marjorie Grant of Willard, Mo. He is survived by wife Mildred Blankenship of Springfield; sons Robert Blankenship of Longwood, Fla. and Damon Blankenship of Ross; daughters Christine Matviya of New Alexandria and Beth Ann Covelli of St. Charles, Ill.; and 11 grandchildren and five great-grandchildren.

A special memorial service is scheduled for 11 a.m. Saturday in Community Presbyterian Church of Ben Avon, 7501 Church Ave., with the Rev. Jean Henderson officiating. The family will receive friends from 9:30 a.m. to 10:45 a.m. prior to the service. Inurnment will follow later in Longwood, Fla.

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