The world of physical activity and health lost a giant on October 6, 2023 with the death of Steven N. Blair, PED. In addition to an astonishing, extended career of scientific productivity, leadership, and teaching, Dr. Blair served as a founding co-Editor of the Journal of Physical Activity and Health (JPAH) with Dr. James R. Morrow, Jr when it debuted in 2004. JPAH will soon celebrate its 20th anniversary.

Coming from humble roots growing up on a Kansas farm, Dr. Blair excelled in athletics. He completed his undergraduate training at Kansas Wesleyan University and earned his doctoral degree at Indiana University. His career path led him to the University of South Carolina, a postdoctoral fellowship at Stanford University, and the Cooper Institute for Aerobics Research. He later rejoined the faculty at the University of South Carolina for the last years of his remarkable career.

There is literally no corner in the field of physical activity and health where Dr. Blair’s influence and legacy cannot be found. From his groundbreaking work on fitness and mortality in the Aerobics Center Longitudinal Study, his role as founding president of the US National Coalition to Promote Physical Activity, and as Senior Scientific Editor of the first US Surgeon General’s Report on Physical Activity and Health, Dr. Blair’s seemingly endless energy and singular focus around the world helped to build this field. At times controversial, he always relied on science and the scientific process to advance the field and separate physical activity and public health from the laboratory-based constraints of classical exercise physiology.

Although Dr. Blair’s scientific contributions are apparent and readily available, less well-known is the influence he had on young scientists, particularly his support of young female scientists and practitioners. Leaders are everywhere. Those who distinguish themselves take the time to pull the next generation(s) up with them. This may be Dr. Blair’s most enduring characteristic. Dr. Blair was particularly influenced by the mentoring of Dr. Ralph S. Paffenbarger, which he then used as a model for his mentoring of others. Indeed, the field of physical activity and health is what it has become because of Dr. Blair’s leadership and attention to the next generation of leaders. For young scientists in the newly formed field of physical activity epidemiology in the 1980s, he was a hero. There is now a next generation of leaders emerging who, despite not knowing Dr. Blair, have been indirectly influenced by his enormous impact on the field.

Although he will be missed, those who knew Dr. Blair know that he would want his legacy to continue in zealous pursuit of the next frontiers in physical activity and health. As we move from being sedentary to taking a walk, as we commit to walking the stairs rather than using an elevator, or as we work to maintain our physical fitness into our later years, we shall remember Steven N. Blair for his lifetime of science and advocacy around physical activity and health.