In memoriam: Professor Emeritus Ed Blakely
The College of Environmental Design was saddened to learn of the death of Professor Emeritus Edward Blakely, who passed away on September 6 at the age of 87 in his adopted hometown of Sydney, Australia. A specialist in post-disaster urban policy and planning, Blakely joined the faculty of the Department of City & Regional Planning in 1974; he served as department chair from 1986 until his retirement in 1994.
“Ed was a highly respected leading scholar in economic development and social-policy planning,” says Professor Emeritus of City & Regional Planning Robert Cervero. “He was one of a handful of urban planning scholars who effectively bridged research, advocacy, and political activism. He was beloved by students for not only challenging them intellectually but also bringing warmth and compassion to the classroom. He’ll be dearly missed.”
After leaving Berkeley, Blakely held posts as dean at the University of Southern California and the New School University. He then became professor of urban and regional planning at the University of Sydney and subsequently honorary professor in urban policy at the university’s United States Studies Centre.
His primary interests were social justice, economic development, and disaster recovery. He authored a number of books, including Fortress America, Separate Societies: Poverty and Inequality in U.S. Cities, Planning Local Economic Development: Theory and Practice, and Rural Communities in Advanced Industrial Society.
Blakely advised governments worldwide on urban policy, especially following natural disasters. He was special advisor to the mayor of Oakland after the 1989 Loma Prieta Earthquake and advised the governments of Japan, Turkey, Chile, Honduras, and Indonesia after disasters there. Most notably, he served as executive director of the Office of Recovery and Development Administration for New Orleans for two years following Hurricane Katrina, a tenure he wrote about in his 2012 book, My Storm: Managing the Recovery of New Orleans in the Wake of Katrina.
Blakely’s extensive record of public service also included advising the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development as well as three presidential administrations in the U.S. In Australia, he served as district commissioner of the Greater Sydney Commission and acting commissioner of the State of New South Wales Land and Environment Court.
In 2012, UN-Habitat recognized Blakely for promoting social justice in post-disaster recovery globally. The Association of Collegiate Schools of Planning presents a biannual award named in his honor, which recognizes scholarship that advances the cause of social justice in planning.
Blakely remained active at the University of California in his later years. He was chair of the advisory board for the University of California Disaster Resilience Network (UCDRN), which brings together the UC system’s multidisciplinary expertise to advance resilience across communities and disciplines. In October 2024, he visited the UC Berkeley campus for an invited lecture on post-disaster sustainability planning and design in the Department of City & Regional Planning, where he reconnected with current faculty, met new faculty and doctoral students, and related stories of his time in Oakland and Berkeley, including his stint as a football coach while on the faculty here.
A native Californian, Blakely was born in 1938 in San Bernardino. He earned his BA from UC Riverside, MA in Latin American history from UC Berkeley, and his PhD in education and management from UCLA. At Riverside, Blakely was a four-sport athlete for the Highlanders, playing on the football, basketball, track & field, and rugby teams, and earned UC Riverside Athlete of the Year honors in 1959. Well into his eighties, he could be found refereeing American style football games in Australia as a linesman.