Every human life has its own unique gifts. A person can be remembered through the lens of their gifts as much as through a record of their accomplishments. Blair Rexroth’s gifts made him the unique person we all knew and loved.

Blair Allan Rexroth was born to Donald and Esther Rexroth (née Schulze) on December 22, 1942. Given the kind of people his parents were, it should have been no surprise as to the gifts he would possess.

Most people don’t strike up random conversations with strangers. The mere thought of doing such a thing would force the average person to break out in a cold sweat. Blair Rexroth not only relished such interactions, he often sought them out. Within minutes, he would forge a bond with his new conversational companion that would rival the friendships of most men his age.

Gab was not the only gift Blair had – he was gifted with wanderlust at an early age. After finishing high school in New Albany, Indiana, he attended Indiana University for two years where he met lifelong friends Jack, Mike, and Will. He and Will left IU to join Jack and Mike in Miami where he soon became a professional deckhand and, when he had more experience under his belt, he was eventually hired as a boatswain. This experience made him an attractive candidate for a transatlantic voyage of the sailing yacht Patria (now Sea Cloud) that took him from Miami to Nice, France. While in Europe, he had the opportunity to travel extensively through Italy, France, and Spain. Upon returning to the US, Blair moved out west. He traveled around the southwest and Mexico before settling in California.

Another gift bestowed upon Blair was to experience the world with the mind and eyes of an engineer. From his youngest years growing up in the small rural community of Bucyrus, Ohio, close to the family farm that his father managed, to his middle childhood in Cairo, Georgia, to his high school years in New Albany, Indiana, he was exposed to the world of engineering and machinery.

Part of Blair’s engineering fascination manifested as an interest in rifles and target shooting. He was a member of a competitive rifle team in high school which achieved great acclaim in the state. The team even won a state championship in 1961. Blair’s interest in rifles and guns lasted throughout his life as he collected rifles, both old and new.

Farming obviously involves work with machinery, but the family moved away from the farms of rural Ohio to the thick forests of southern Georgia when he was eight years old. Luckily, he still had the chance to experience machinery. Blair’s father Don purchased a bulldozer and was hired to perform odd jobs around the area. Blair and his brother Mike would ride around on the bulldozer with their father, enjoying every minute of it.

Eventually, the family moved to New Albany, Indiana where their father started a small company building equipment for food processing plants. This equipment would include conveyor systems and packing machines – some of which were quite innovative for the time!

The machinery business quickly became what the Rexroth family was known for, at least locally. While Blair was living in California, his parents moved to South Bend, Indiana where Don continued the business. Blair rejoined his parents in South Bend when his mother Esther became ill in the early 1970s. Blair assumed management of the family business after his mother passed away in 1974 and became a partner in the company.

Blair met Roberta Davidhizar in 1975, and due to Cupid’s fine work, they were very smitten with each other. They moved to Florida and married in 1977 to start their lives together. Blair started his own food machinery business for seafood and other processing plants which provided enough for them to have a quiet life on Pine Island beach filled with laughter, surrounded by friends they loved.

Blair and Roberta eventually had two boys, Christopher and Ryan. The boys loved beach life as much as their parents and continued to love beaches and the ocean throughout their lives. Life on the beach was filled with swimming, sailing, sunning, and potlucks with family friends on the beach.

In 1989, Blair started working at power plants around Florida, conducting repairs and acting as a general machinist for Florida Power. This travel work eventually extended to travel around the US to work at various nuclear power facilities, as well as commercial and naval shipyards. Blair loved traveling around the US to work and meet new people. This work travel rekindled his wanderlust and filled him with joy.

Whenever the work location was close enough to a beach, he would arrange for his rental to be as close to the water as possible so he could swim and surf during his off hours. One such location was on the east coast of Florida at Port Saint Lucie. It was geographically close enough for Roberta and the boys to visit on the weekends. These weekend beach visits were some of the family’s most cherished memories.

Blair eventually stopped working when his knees no longer let him keep up the pace that was required for such manual labor. He then shifted his focus to buying investment properties to rent and manage. He loved this kind of work because it allowed him to be a handyman, a property manager, and self-employed once again – which he loved.

His health eventually started to decline throughout the pandemic, and eventually his heart gave out on February 6, 2026. He is survived by his wife, Roberta, his two sons, Christopher and Ryan, and his sister Rebecca Hastings. All of whom were with him at the time of his passing. He is also survived by many nieces, nephews, great nieces, and great nephews from all across the country.

Blair is gone now, but we can always remember him through the gifts that made him who he was: a great conversationalist, a sailor, and an engineer – not to mention: husband, father, brother, and uncle. Rest In Peace, Blair, you’re sailing among the stars now.

Funeral services will be held Saturday, February 14th at 1:00 pm in the Munz-Pirnstill Funeral Home with Deborah Bennett officiating. Burial will follow in the Oakwood Cemetery. The family will receive friends from 12:00 noon until the time of service. Expressions of sympathy may be left at www.munzpirnstill.com