Webster’s New World Dictionary’s definition of a mentor is the following: 1. A wise advisor 2. A teacher or coach.

To me, a mentor is so much more than Webster’s sterile definition. Initially, that definition may be appropriate, but as time goes on, you develop – at least I did – a lasting friendship that goes far beyond the initial “question and answer” sessions you may have with someone you look to for guidance. I really have had only two people I can truly call mentors, Don Blair and Gerry Beranek. This article honors Blair.

The name Donald F. Blair should not be new to anyone, young or old, in the tree care industry, but I feel, unfortunately, that this may not be the case for the younger generation. If you were to ask a young baseball fan today if they know who Babe Ruth, Mickey Mantle and Roger Clemens are, they would say, “Of course, they’re legends!” Well, this is how I feel Blair should be recognized as well, and I hope this article will shed some light on what he has accomplished in our industry and why he is one of my mentors.

Don Blair started doing tree work when he joined his father’s tree service business in June 1971 as an 18-year-old. The M. F. Blair Tree Experts (his father’s, Millard F. Blair’s, company) was founded in Palo Alto, California, in 1922. Don Blair took on management of the company in 1975, while also active as a residential/commercial contractor and consulting arborist.

At a Glance

Donald F. Blair

Name: Donald F. Blair
Job title: Arborist/author/historian
Company/organization: Blair’s Arborist Equipment, blairsae.com
City/state: Hagerstown, Maryland
Years in industry: 53+
Credentials: American Society of Consulting Arborists Registered Consulting Arborist (RCA), ISA Certified Arborist, Certified Treecare Safety Professional (CTSP)
Area(s) of impact: Equipment, techniques, education, training, historian
Books: “Arborist Equipment, A Guide to the Tools and Equipment of Tree Care Maintenance and Removal”

Competitive climbing
It is difficult to comprehend just how much Blair has been involved with the tree care industry, as he has a hand in most everything in one form or another. He was a competitive climber who, in 1976, helped bring the first Tree Trimmer’s Jamboree to ISA’s annual meeting in St. Louis. He competed at the Western Chapter of the ISA tree-climbing event (known back then as The Tree Trimmer’s Jamboree), where his best showing was Overall Champion – Second Place, in 1978.

An old-model Hobbs Lowering Device, left, and the improved H-2, which Don Blair and Ken Johnson still produce. Photo courtesy of the author.

“In 1977, I competed in Philadelphia at the 2nd ISA Jamboree. There, I realized that the ISA needed a lot of help in bringing consistency to the events and the judging, and volunteered to step in as a special advisor, working with Mel Melnike and the Ontario, ISA Chapter, to help organize the 3rd Jamboree in Toronto.”

Blair has climbed, judged or helped organize Jamborees in California, Oregon, Washington, Texas and Illinois. In 1993, he traveled to Lahnstein, Germany, to help with the ISA European Meeting and the first European Tree Climbing Competition.

The one and only book on arborist tools, “Arborist Equipment.” Image courtesy of the author.

Inventor
More than just an arborist who happens to sell equipment on the side, Blair is an inventor of many of the pieces of gear we take for granted today. Back when he began working at Blair’s, he could see they were using the same tools they had been 50 years earlier. Blair says he thought things could be made better. In 1975, he began designing and making arborist-specific equipment, as well as introducing products from other industries not commonly used by arborists at the time, such as fiberglass pruning poles, figure-eights and carabiners.

Blair opened Sierra Moreno Mercantile Company in 1975 and operated it for 45 years. He reincorporated it in 2015 as Blair’s Arborist Equipment, an online operation (blairsae.com).

Going catalog
For more than 10 years after starting the company, his friends and loyal customers kept asking, “When’s the catalog coming out?” Well, it came out in 1986 and was an instant hit. It was filled with relics and vintage photos of arborist equipment – courtesy of M.F. Blair Institute of Arboriculture – as well as interesting information about the different tools his company carried. The catalog also contained intriguing histories of tools previously used in the industry.

What do you hope your lasting legacy will be?
“I consider the fact that I had a hand in changing an industry in so many ways, from how we do the work to what we do the work with, as among my greatest accomplishments; everything has to work together.

“My saddles represent a major sea change in what we did, but rope bags, improved ropes, flip lines, ‘Euc-pads,’ lanyard adjusters, better handsaws, chain-saw lanyards, gloves and rigging equipment all work together as a system to make us safer and more efficient,” says Blair. “Tools without techniques don’t mean much, so the arborist skills I helped develop and have demonstrated all over the world for 50 years, combined with the tools, have helped get us to the level we are at today.”

Blair was the very first to introduce wide-back saddles to the industry, and as we can see today, all the new saddles have a wide-back configuration in one form or another. This greatly eliminated the lower back pain many climbers suffered from while wearing the industry-
standard 3-inch-wide waist belt.

Blair also was the first, back in 1982, to introduce a modular system to saddles. The advantages of this system are that all of the parts are interchangeable. You can mix and match sizes if you are in between, and you also can swap out between a seat and leg-strap configuration.

The Blair Saddle that all modern designs are based on. Photos courtesy of Don Blair.

What has been his favorite or, in his opinion, one of the most innovative industry advancements (equipment or technology)?
Ed Hobbs began his work on saddles back in 1970, when he came out with the Bry-Dan harness. Blair was the very first to wear a Bry-Dan in Jamboree competition. With integral suspenders and a patented articulating leg-strap system, the Bry-Dan provided security and freedom of movement in the trees that was not improved upon until 40 years later. That’s when Blair updated it for the next generation of modern arborists.

Still, if you were to ask Blair about these new saddles (not just his, but others), he would tell you, “It’s not the belt, but the arborist inside.” It takes an awful lot more than just a fancy saddle to be a top tree worker, he says.

Author
Following the extensive interest in his Sierra Moreno catalog, Blair knew there was a book “waiting to be written.” In 1995, after a number of years of research and writing, Blair saw the ISA publish what is still considered the bible of tree gear, “Arborist Equipment, A Guide to the Tools and Equipment of Tree Care Maintenance and Removal.”

This book has in it every piece of gear you can imagine, plus anecdotes Blair shares not only about his life, but also those of others in the industry. It makes for such an enjoyable and entertaining read that you’ll find it hard to believe you are reading “a tool guide manual.”

The Bry-Dan II Harness.

Do you think your book still offers value to arborists today?
“There is absolutely nothing in the book that is out of date,” says Blair. “Every fact about rope, ‘cycles to failure,’ safe working loads, tool inspection or equipment maintenance and selection is just as accurate and factual as when it was published. The only thing missing is the inclusion of the bewildering array of climbing gizmos and gadgets still being sorted out as to what works and what doesn’t.

“The history, humor and people honored are every bit as timeless as the introduction of the Oak Man and the Euc Man to each succeeding generation of arborist,” says Blair. (See Blair’s description on blairsae.com, but one example of Oak is “the right tool for the right job,” while Euc is “get a bigger hammer!”)

Rigging gear
Those who know me know I am fascinated with Ed Hobbs and what he and Blair did once they joined forces. Blair eventually bought the patent rights to Hobbs’ gear. For years the Hobbs Lowering Device was the only ratcheting capstan drum on the market specifically made for arboriculture. It quickly became the premier piece of heavy-duty rigging gear (and in my opinion, it still is). That, along with the Hobbs Blocks, truly revolutionized what could be done with tree rigging. You have to remember that back in the 1970s, tree workers were still taking wraps on trees (many still are), and they didn’t have an efficient means to raise limbs or wood pieces.

Note: Ed Hobbs invented the first Hobbs Block, the monster 1-inch capacity, 80,000-pound-tensile-strength behemoth. Blair designed three more sizes in descending order, size and weight: three-fourths-inch, five-eighths-inch and half-inch, but kept the name intact in honor of Ed Hobbs’ original work.

Blair teamed up with Ken Johnson of California big-wood rigging fame, and together they produced a much-improved version of the original Hobbs Lowering Device. Johnson’s primary innovation was the angled mounting frame he designed to fit the radius of a tree trunk far better than Hobbs’ original flat frame.

All modern arborist blocks have their roots based on the design of Ed Hobbs’ blocks. Photo courtesy of Don Blair.

Education
Considered by some to be “the father of modern arborist equipment,” I think Blair also is “the father of modern tree rigging.” With all the new tools and ropes becoming available in the 1980s and 1990s, he saw this was leading to many more injuries and fatalities. Not necessarily due to the limitations of the gear, but to the limitations of the trees themselves and the lack of knowledge among the people working in them. The equipment was so strong that the trees were not always able to handle the loads being applied to them.

Having worked with the National Arborist Association (now TCIA) in 1989 on the first-ever video on aerial rescue, Blair approached the NAA about doing a rigging video. Teaming up again with Ken Johnson and another master arborist, Robert Phillips, they starred in the “Rigging for Removal Workbook” and accompanying video series. Produced by the NAA, directed by TCIA’s Peter Gerstenberger and sponsored by Husqvarna and Yale Cordage, the NAA released this valuable piece of training material in 1991. This was just a year before the ISA, in collaboration with ArborMaster Training Inc., released their rigging series, “The Art and Science of Practical Rigging.” Together, these books and accompanying videos have saved many lives.

Standards and regulations
Blair was heavily involved in the development of the ANSI Z133 safety standard. He served on the Z133 Committee for 30 years – 15 of those as co-chair – through six revisions. He also served on the ANSI A300 committee for the development of the original (Part 1) Pruning standard.

“I was on the inaugural committee from its inception on June 28, 1991, until publication in 1995,” Blair recalls. He also served as an advisor for the revised A300 pruning standard, published in 2001.

As if that weren’t enough, Blair keeps busy as a consulting arborist and expert witness in legal cases involving fatalities and serious injuries related to tree care and equipment failure. He has worked with OSHA on many cases.

On top of all this, Blair was the very first arborist to travel throughout the U.S., Canada, Australia, Germany and the UK presenting classroom and field instruction in all manner of tree care and arborist skills, with special emphasis on rigging and aerial rescue.

M.F. Blair. Photo courtesy of Don Blair.

Conclusion
I first met Blair back in 2007 at TCI EXPO, held that year in Hartford, Connecticut. I remember having him sign my second-edition “Arborist Equipment” book and talking to him and Ken Johnson about the equipment they had on display. I also remember Blair saying to me that I was the “most inquisitive person” he had ever met.

Many years have passed since then, and Blair and I continue to stay in touch and pass information back and forth. He is truly a great mentor and friend. I know I can never fill his shoes, but I will try my best to follow in his footsteps and mentor any climber willing to listen to my tales.

The author would like to thank Don Blair for his contributions in the additions and edits to this article.

This is an abridged version of a longer profile of Don Blair by the author. The longer version can be found online at tcimag.tcia.org.

Chris Girard is an ISA Certified Arborist, a Society of Professional Rope Access Technicians (SPRAT) Level 1 Technician and owner of Girard Tree Service, a 16-year TCIA member company based in Gilmanton, New Hampshire.