Diane Divers Blair, 61, died at her home in Fayetteville, Ark. June 26 after a courageous battle with lung cancer. She was professor emeritus of political science at the University of Arkansas where she taught for 30 years.

She was three times named "Outstanding Faculty Member" by University students. In 1982, she was one of the first recipients of he Fulbright College "Master Teacher Award." In May 2000, she was awarded an honorary Doctor of Laws by the University of Arkansas. Word of her illness prompted hundreds of letters from former students who said she had a major impact on their lives.

She was twice nominated to the board of the U.S. Corporation for Public Broadcasting by President Clinton and twice confirmed to that position by the United States Senate. She served two terms as chair. The Corporation has just announced that its new board room will be named for her.

She was appointed by Governor Dale Bumpers in 1971 as Chair of the Governor’s Commission on the status of women, by Governor David Pryor in 1976 to chair a Commission n Public Employee Rights, and by Governor Bill Clinton in 1980 as a commissioner of the Arkansas Educational Television Network on which she served until 1993 and which she chaired in 1986 and 1987.

In 1992, she took leave from the University of Arkansas to serve as senior researcher with the Clinton presidential campaign. In 1996, she took leave to serve as senior advisor to the Clinton-Gore re-election campaign. In 1993, she served as a guest scholar at the Brookings Institution in Washington, D.C.

She published two books: Silent Hattie Speaks, the Personal Journal of Senator Hattie Caraway and Arkansas Politics and Government: Do the People Rule?, the primary text used in Arkansas colleges and universities.

She authored 14 chapters in books and published over 90 articles in various publications dealing primarily with Arkansas, with state and local government and with women in politics.

The daughter of William Keeveny Divers and Minna Rosenbaum Divers, she was born Oct. 25, 1938, and raised in Washington, D.C. She received her bachelor’s degree from Cornell University in 1959, cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa. She worked in Washington, D.C. in the early sixties as a contract analyst for the President’s Committee on Government Contracts, as a research assistant for a Senate Special Committee on Unemployment, and as a legislative secretary and speechwriter for Senator Stuart Symington of Missouri. She moved to Arkansas in 1963 where she was active in numerous civic and political organizations, as well as the Modern Literature Club, and received her master’s degree in political science from the University of Arkansas.

She is listed in American Who’s Who in Government and Politics and in the World Who’s Who of Women. She debated Phyllis Schaffley before the Arkansas Legislative on Valentine’s Day 1975 on behalf of the Equal Rights Amendment. In 1992, she was selected to cast one of Arkansas’ ballots in the Electoral College.

In 1995, she was honored by the Midwest Political Science Association for the body of her work in political science.

Last month she established the Jim and Diane Blair Charitable Foundation to continue the charitable giving she commenced when she was a teenager.

A devoted wife and mother, she is survived by her husband James B. Blair, her son William Reid Kincaid, her daughter Kathryn Kincaid Jong, her sister Lois Alward, her grandson Emory Darwin Kincaid, her granddaughter Sarah Diane Jong, her stepdaughters Heather Elaine Blair and Arden Sue Blair, and her stepson James R. Blair.

Graveside services will be private. Interment will be in Fairview Cemetery in Fayetteville by Moore’s Funeral Home. Honorary pallbearers will be Rita Davis, Ellen Shipley, Kay Trumbo, Lee Ann Underwood, Ann Henry, and Mary Joe McIlory.

A memorial service will be held at 4 p.m. July 25 the Walton Arts Center in Fayetteville, Ark. A reception and visitation with family and friends will follow.

In lieu of flowers, memorials may be made to the : "Diane D. Blair Political Science Professorship Fund," Office of Development, Hotz Hall 200, University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, AR 72701. Please make checks payable to "The University of Arkansas Foundation, INC." or to the "Diane D. Blair Scholarship Fund" at the Single Parent Scholarship Fund of Washington County, 614 E. Emma, Suite 119, Springdale, AR 72764.

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