The Dr. Joseph H. Blackstead Scholarship Fund will award scholarships on the basis of need to DoDDS high school students in Germany who are planning to teach.

Dr. Joseph Henry Blackstead (Dr. B) was born in Minot, North Dakota. Joe attended Fort Yates High School near the Standing Rock Indian Reservation in Fort Yates, North Dakota, where his father worked for the WPA. He excelled in sports, academics, and leadership; however, he also experienced firsthand the educational deprivation suffered by the Native American students. Joe entered the University of North Dakota on a football scholarship, but his education had to be postponed during World War II. After the war, he completed his B.A. at the University of Portland and started his first teaching job.

In 1952, Joe joined the overseas military school system and relocated with his wife Betty and daughter Bobi to Nurnberg, Germany, as a math teacher and coach. His original intent was to teach for one year. That one year turned into a 42-year career including positions as teacher and coach at Nurnberg High School in Germany and Madrid High School in Spain; as principal of Johnson High School in Japan; as superintendent of Yakota-Johnson Complex in Japan; as deputy director of the Pacific Region in Japan and Korea; as director of the North Germany Region; as director of DoDDS in Germany; and finally, as director of DoDDS in the European Region. His daughter Libby and son Joey were born in Germany. His daughter Trish was born in Japan. After a very long illness, his wife Betty passed away.

Joe completed his M.A. at the University of Oregon in 1962 and his doctorate in Educational Administration at the University of Arizona in 1973. He was highly praised for his doctoral dissertation, which was both scholarly and practical. He received the NCA's John W. Vaughn Award for Excellence in Education and a Phi Delta Kappa chapter award for Educational Administrator of the Year, and he was listed in “Who's Who in American Education.”

In 1992, Joe married Dr. Barbara Dubnick, a guidance counselor at Frankfort Elementary School and former DoDDS teacher and school psychologist. When Joe retired in 1994, they returned to the U.S.

Joe is remembered as a dedicated and innovative educator who devoted his professional career to improving the quality of education for American students in both the U.S. and abroad. In his professional and personal life, he was admired for his warmth, sense of humor, and dignity. Joe's love of life, courage, compassion, integrity, and humility remain a source of inspiration for those whose lives he touched.