OBITUARY
 
Bernard (Bernie) S. Blair (1919 - 2010)

BERNARD (Bernie) S. Blair, October 24, 1919 – February 15, 2010. Bernie passed away peacefully early on Monday morning in Hong Kong with his wife Teresa by his side. Surviving are two sons, Julien and Grafton, three grandsons, and two great grandchildren.

Bernie was just an ordinary good man, extraordinary in his own ways.  Well versed in seven languages, loved classical music, history and literature. He was utterly sincere and true in his words, a great person who always fulfilled his obligations. He inspired us with his passion for learning and his zeal for life, all 90 years, 3 months, and 14 days. He loved his family and friends. He will be greatly missed by those who loved him dearly. 

Bernie was born in Peoria, Illinois and graduated from the University of Illinois at Champagne in 1942 as a specialist in foreign languages. He easily found employment with the government as a translator and in 1943 was sent to Algiers to serve in the Office of Foreign Relief; he further served the war effort as an interpreter and interrogator across Europe until the end of WWII.  

In 1946 he returned home to marry his high school sweetheart, Betty, and accepted an offer from MGM to go to East Africa where his two sons were born.  At twenty-six, he became Sales Manager for this high profile film company in Kenya, Sao Paulo, Caracas, Rome & Tokyo. One of the highlights of his career occurred in 1959 when he hosted, with Charlton Heston, the grand premiere of BEN-HUR, attended by the Emperor of Japan. 

Taking an early retirement in 1972, Bernie moved to Hong Kong, where he set off in a new career direction as a technical analyst and commodity trader.  In these early days, when historical data and daily charts were recorded by hand using data from the Wall Street Journal, he soon needed an assistant and found Teresa Wong who was then operating her own secretarial services.  In 1978 people started publishing new material on technical analysis and Bernie saw the opportunity to open a new venture, making books and charts available in the Asian market for the first time.  Teresa proved to be an efficient and capable business manager.   In the following twenty years the business flourished and they were privileged to become friends with the many authors and publishers, software developers, and the interesting clients they attracted from around the world.  Some of their first products were from the most well-known names in the industry: Welles Wilder, author of New Concepts in Technical Trading Systems; Perry Kaufman, author of Commodity Trading Systems & Methods; Art LaVallie, publisher of Commodity Perspective (now CRB Price Chart) and Tim Slater of Computrac.

Bernie retired in the mid-90’s and moved to Twyford-England, but he lost his wife of 50 years to a long illness.   Later he married Teresa.  In spite of his major heart surgery in 1997, after which Dr. Sommerhock said he had only a couple of years left, they managed to stretch their time together for 14 years, traveling throughout Europe, Asia and the United States, visiting their vast network of friends.