Blake Norman Morris

On July 11, 2026, Blake Norman Morris passed away in Richmond, Virginia at the age of 74. A retired data professional, Blake was known and esteemed in gaming and musical circles in and around Richmond.

He was born on December 20, 1951 in Portsmouth, Virginia, the only child of Fred Morris and Norma Pattie Morris. The family moved to Henrico County when Blake was a child. There, Blake attended J.R. Tucker High School, where he was active in the Science and Chess clubs. In 1969, he enrolled in University of Richmond. He was a Dean’s List student and was inducted into Phi Beta Kappa and the mathematics honor society Pi Mu Epsilon. He graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in Mathematics in 1973.

Blake spent most of his career at GE Capital as an actuarial analyst and computer programmer, continuing through the company’s transition into Genworth and retiring in 2017. His work colleagues remember him as a good friend who was always generous with his time.

Outside of work, music and board games were the abiding interests of his life.

Blake loved every genre of classical music and had an encyclopedic knowledge of scores from the Middle Ages to modern times. He possessed a rich, resonant tenor voice, complemented by perfect diction in several languages. He particularly loved the German Romantic art song (Lieder) repertoire, and spent his later years composing original songs in that style set to nineteenth century poetic texts.

Blake was particularly drawn to music of the distant past, which he sang and played on historical instruments such as recorders, viols, and early keyboards. He was a founding member of the Finsbury Minstrel Guild, which brought early music into area public schools, and RVA Baroque, Richmond’s community-based period-instrument ensemble. With RVA Baroque, he performed annually at Richmond Public Library from 2011 to 2024.

Blake was equally at home in American folk music traditions. He played a variety of mountain and hammered dulcimers and sang “shape note” hymns in the Sacred Harp tradition. He sang with several area church choirs, including Ginter Park United Methodist Church and Northside Baptist Church.

His other great passion was collecting and playing board games. He became a mainstay of the Richmond board gaming community, gaming five times a week with different groups. Even after health setbacks affected his mobility, he managed to host weekly game nights in his room and attended the 2025 DollarCon event in his wheelchair. At the end of his life, Blake was learning to perfect his strategy at the game of Go. A devoted teacher and promoter of board games, Blake donated over 100 games to the RiVirCon Board Game Library now named after him.

Blake had no close family members at his passing, but he is survived by many devoted friends in these diverse communities. They will long remember his artistry, his vast knowledge, his generosity, and his lifelong devotion to exacting and sometimes unusual pursuits.

In accordance with his wishes, Blake Morris’ ashes will be laid to rest in Evergreen Burial Park in Roanoke, Virginia, where his parents are buried.