In recognition of the profound educational impact Bob Blankenship, an elder of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, has made over the course of his lifetime, he has been named the NC State College of Education’s 2024 Distinguished Alumnus. (Photos courtesy of the Blankenship family)
By RYAN CLANCY
NC State University College of Education News
(Note: This article is reprinted with permission from NC State University.)
Tribal Leader. Army helicopter pilot. Trout farmer. Antique car collector. Museum president. Since graduating from the NC State College of Education, it sometimes feels as if there is little Bob Blankenship ’60 has not accomplished over the course of his life and career.
At the core of his many accomplishments lies a lifelong devotion to his family — he has been married for 68 years, with eight children, 17 grandchildren and 22 great-grandchildren — as well as to his tribal community, the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians.
Not only was Blankenship instrumental in securing the funding for and establishing the current Museum of the Cherokee People, but for nearly 50 years, he served as its president, creating an educational institution that continues to preserve the history, culture and stories of the tribe.
In recognition of the profound educational impact Blankenship has made over the course of his lifetime, he has been named the NC State College of Education’s 2024 Distinguished Alumnus.
“To see him honored for all of these things that he’s done over his career and throughout his life, really is just a tremendous opportunity and a tremendous honor for our family, because of that legacy at NC State,” said Cory Blankenship, Bob’s grandson, who is also an NC State graduate.
Bob Blankenship is shown at his graduation from NC State University in 1960.
“I’m really proud to be the distinguished alumnus,” Bob Blankenship said.
Bob said his belief in the importance of education was instilled in him by his parents when he was growing up on the Qualla Boundary in Western North Carolina.
“I just remember my mother saying, ‘You got to go get it,’ and then it pays forward, especially with NC State,” Bob said.
As an NC State student in the late 1950s, Bob majored in industrial arts, which was housed within the College of Education. He was also a member of the ROTC, two experiences that set the course for the next stage of his life and career as a U.S. Army helicopter pilot in Korea and Vietnam.
Known to his fellow aviators as Cherokee Six, Bob served in the Aviation Company 7 Special Forces 1st Cavalry Division in Vietnam and flew 900 hours of combat, 350 of which were as an instructor pilot, and once lifted out eight American troops who were pinned down under heavy fire.
“I was just doing my job, fellas,” he said at the time.
When Bob returned home in the late 1960s, he further enmeshed himself into his tribal community. He managed a motel, opened a trout farm that became a topic of discussion with his former classmate and former governor Jim Hunt ’59, ’62MS (“He liked to farm hogs; and I farmed trout.”), and took on the role of tribal planner.
It was in that position that Bob traveled to Washington, D.C., and met with officials from the federal Economic Development Authority, which then awarded the tribe a $700,000 grant to build what is now the Museum of the Cherokee People near the Cherokee mother town of Kituwah.
“That is where Cherokee people and Cherokee culture and Cherokee history began,” Cory said. “To bring as much of that back home, so that we can pass that knowledge on to future generations — it’s important as Native people that our folks know where they come from and have that sense of identity.”
Not only was Bob Blankenship instrumental in securing the funding for the museum, but he and his family became integral to its long-term success as an educational institution. Bob served as the museum’s first president, from 1976 to 2019; his mother planted all the flower beds out front; and his brother, Ken, for whom the museum’s education wing is named, served as the museum’s longtime executive director.
“[The museum] really is just a repository of all things Cherokee and a place where our people can go and learn more about their history and about their culture,” said Cory.
As Bob likes to say, Cory now serves on all the boards he used to serve on, including that of the museum, and the Blankenships look forward to building upon a family legacy defined, in many ways, by a strong emphasis on education and a healthy dose of Wolfpack pride.
“I think that the bar was set extremely high with what my grandfather has done with his education and throughout his career,” Cory said. “I’ve always had that connection to leadership within our community, as well as leadership in the tribal community across Indian country, because of his influence and the things that he has done with those skills that he learned at NC State.”
Mini-Story: A Wolfpack Legacy
When Cory Blankenship was in middle school and high school, he took annual trips to the state capitol as part of the National History Day program. Often, he was accompanied by his grandfather, who made sure Cory was also learning important lessons about NC State.
“I got a tour of Raleigh and all the places that he lived and all of the places where he had class,” Cory said.
When it came time for Cory to join the Wolfpack, he applied for a Park Scholarship and was surprised when his interviewer, Gerald Elkan, took him aside and asked: “Hey, you’re not related to Bob Blankenship up in Cherokee with all the old cars, are you?”
Cory knew about his grandfather’s extensive collection of classic automobiles, but he didn’t know that Elkan and his grandfather had worked together as U.S. Army recruiters up at West Point and that, when they returned to North Carolina, stayed in touch and would attend car shows together.
“He always had this connection to the university and to people connected at the university,” said Cory Blankenship, who was named a Park Scholar and now serves as the executive director of the Native American Finance Officers Association.
In addition to Bob and Cory, two other members of their family, Arizona Jane Blankenship Consuela Girty, are NC State graduates. Girty also serves as the superintendent of the Cherokee Central School system.
Bob’s Cherokee name is OO-GAH-NAST, which translates to “Sweet Thing.”
In total, he served six years as an active duty member of the U.S. Army, and a total of 30 years in the reserves, retiring with the rank of colonel, the highest military rank of any member of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians.
Bob has published a series of genealogy books, entitled “Cherokee Roots,” that allow tribal members to trace their ancestry.
He helped found the Sequoyah Birthplace Museum, which is located in eastern Tennessee and was created to preserve the history of Sequoyah, who created the Cherokee writing system.
