Charles L. Blood, born Dec. 24, 1929, passed away April 15.
Chick, so nicknamed by his mother, was the only child of Lewis and Ethel Blood of Matawan. He was also convinced of his descent from the legendary pirate Captain Blood and Colonel Blood, notorious in the 1680s for stealing the crown jewels of England.
Chick was a performer and storyteller all his life. In the era of Shirley Temple, he was “discovered” as a child on a Times Square street corner with his mother and spent his childhood performing on Broadway and in national tours in such plays as “Kiss and Tell,” “On Borrowed Time,” “The American Way” and “Watch on the Rhine.”
Returning to Matawan for high school, he graduated in 1947 and went on to Columbia University. From there he enlisted in the U.S. Air Force, serving on Iwo Jima during the Korean War. He married the former Marjorie Liggett in 1953. His son, Charles L. Blood II was born that year. That marriage ended in divorce; he married the former Deborah Paustian in 1988.
Chick entered the advertising business in the mid-1950s, working as a copywriter for Young & Rubicam for most of his career. He worked on many well-known campaigns of the “Mad Men” era and was especially proud of his work on Gulf Oil in the ‘60s, for which he won a CLIO award, and for Covenant House in the ‘80s, where he coached young recovering addicts in writing their own campaign, which won a Presidential citation from President Reagan.
In addition, he wrote children’s and pet care books and served as technical editor and contributor to the trade magazine American Gunsmith, with whom he was affiliated until his last months.
Chick had a gift for friendship and loved his family deeply. He never stopped acting and using his handsome baritone to give life to his stories.
He was proud of his son, his Penobscot Native American heritage, and his theater and advertising careers.
He loved summers in Maine, Giants football, golf, photography and keeping up with old friends. He is fondly remembered by his young relatives from the Blood and Marshall families in Dover-Foxcroft and Boothbay Harbor, Maine, and his niece and nephews of Tenafly, New Jersey and Santa Cruz, California. He is survived by his wife and son.
A Memorial Gathering will be held Saturday, April 21 from 5-7 p.m. For more information, to send condolences or for directions, please visit pflegerfuneralhome.com.
Donations in Chick’s memory can be made to: New Jersey Blind Citizens Association, 18 Burlington Ave., Leonardo, NJ 07737.
