The Sower’s Chapel

Each year since 2010, the Sowers Chapel in Buffalo Township has honored the life of a local veteran for its annual Memorial Day ceremony. The tradition will continue Sunday, May 24 at 11 a.m., as the chapel pays tribute to Korean War veteran Ken Blair.

Blair, a Sarver native who served as a medic in an Army MASH unit during the height of the Korean War, is the 15th local veteran to be honored by the Sowers Chapel at the annual Memorial Day event.

“This is our 15th year. We had to take off two years because of COVID,” said Trish Lindsay, who organizes the memorial each year. “Basically, we just keep our eye out for local people who have served the community, but have also served in the military. We look at obituaries and notice if there’s someone who’s well known and died recently, and we ask the family if they would allow us to honor them.”

Born in April 1929 in Pittsburgh as the fourth child of James and Lucile Blair, Ken first answered his nation’s call in 1948 when he joined the Marine Corps Reserve.

Three years later, Blair was dispatched to the Korean theater, where he served from 1951 to 1953 as a medical aidman in a MASH unit of the 8th Army. During this time, in which he won two bronze battle stars, he was stationed in a dangerous area called the “Iron Triangle,” between the three strategically-important areas of Chorwon, Kumhwa, and Pyongyang.

After his discharge, Blair attended Penn State University and earned a Bachelor’s degree, before becoming a teacher at Oakmont Junior High School.

Later, he attended nursing school and earned an additional degree in nursing administration. He used that experience as administrator and owner of Fair Winds Manor in Buffalo Township — which today exists as Quality Life Services. In his later days, Blair was well-known to the community for delivering Meals on Wheels.

Blair is survived by his wife, Zarah, who currently resides at the Concordia at Cabot senior living facility. As part of the Memorial Day ceremony, Zarah and other attending members of the Blair family will be presented with a flag flown over the U.S. Capitol Building in Washington.

Before his death, Blair himself helped uncover stories of local veterans to be honored during the annual service. One of them was World War II veteran Joseph Hager, who became the 2016 honoree. In his later days, Hager maintained a blueberry farm and was a regular recipient of Meals on Wheels deliveries from Blair.

“He knew that (Hager) had lots of pictures from his time in the service,” Lindsay said. “We went over and interviewed the family and found out that he had been shot down over France. These are incredible stories that we would find just by chance.”

Last year’s honoree at the Sowers Chapel was Cpl. Joseph Chapman, who served in the U.S. armed forces throughout America’s involvement in World War II. He was taken as a prisoner of war in a German camp for nearly eight months between 1944 and 1945. Chapman died in December 2022 at the age of 101.

Blair led the Pledge of Allegiance during that ceremony.