Blakemore to be honored as SEMO's 2024 Friend of the University

Southeast Missouri State University recently named alumnus David Blakemore as the 2024 Friend of the University.

However, Blakemore’s college career didn’t start the way one would expect for the recipient of such a prestigious honor.

Blakemore attended Southeast in the 1970s after graduating from Holcomb High School in 1972 and was able to pay for his own tuition while he went to school off and on. Eventually, Blakemore dropped out of college after losing a friend to a car accident and battling a nasty case of influenza.

“I never did figure out how my mother found out (I was sick) and why she was showing up. But years later I found out one of my friends called her and said she needed to get up there and check on me because I was, ‘Going to lay there in the house by himself and die,’” Blakemore said. “I missed a lot of class that semester. I attempted nine hours and passed six, and said ‘This is a waste of my time.’”

After dropping out of college, Blakemore continued to work with his father as he worked to expand the family business — ginning cotton and processing grain. Blakemore had worked with his dad from the age of 10, and the two continued to work together for 45 years.

“The gin started operating when I was 13, so I started working in the cotton gin when I was 13 and the grain elevator,” Blakemore said. “Then, when I was 16, I got moved into the office. I was promoted there from the grain elevator and the deal with it was always that I was going to go to SEMO because I could come home on the weekends and work.”

Eventually, Blakemore’s mother convinced him to return to college and finish his education.

“It had always been aggravating to me because generally, I do what I set out to. It was a sore spot for me that I had not finished my degree,” Blakemore said. “For whatever reason, my mother came in one day back in ’07 and just was bawling. I thought somebody had died and asked, ‘What’s the deal?’ She said, ‘The saddest thing that ever happened to me was you left school.’ I thought at that time, That’s it, that’s all you’ve got on me? Anyway, truth be told I’m a mama’s boy, I enrolled two weeks later.”

Blakemore had to get a little help from his wife, Carolyn Blakemore, who hired a tutor for him to pass college algebra. This time, Blakemore finished his degree, earning a bachelor’s in business administration and management information systems in 2010. After earning his undergraduate degree, Blakemore returned to SEMO in 2013 to earn a master’s in business administration, which he earned in 2015.

Following his graduation, Blakemore gave back to his alma mater, starting the Blakemore Family Business Initiative — an endowment that provides students with various opportunities including research and resources focusing on family business ownership, growth and succession planning — while running the family business as president of Blakemore Cotton and Grain. Blakemore currently serves on the University Foundation board of directors. He and his wife have also established multiple scholarships for undergraduate and graduate students at Southeast.

“I use my degree every day,” Blakemore said. “(SEMO has) excellent teachers and the best value in college, anywhere. I can’t say enough about Southeast Missouri State and the instructors there.”

In addition to serving on the foundation board, Blakemore previously served as the president of the National Cotton Ginners Association and is the current chairperson of the NCC’s Cotton Flow Committee, which sets policy for the supply chain of raw cotton across the United States. In 2018, he was elected president of the Missouri Cotton Growers Organization — a quasi-governmental organization responsible for the eradication of boll weevils and the reduction of pesticide use in Missouri. Blakemore also served both nationally and internationally on the board of directors for Ducks Unlimited Inc., Ducks Unlimited Canada and Ducks Unlimited de Mexico.

The Friend of the University award is the highest honor given to those who support SEMO through the University Foundation and recognizes those who are closely associated with the school’s mission.

Blakemore said he was stunned upon finding out he was selected to receive the honor.

“Overwhelmed is a pretty good word,” Blakemore said. “I never expected for them to think of me like that. It’s kind of cool, especially when you look at the other people who have been named to the Friend of the University role. I never expected to be associated with anybody like that.”

Blakemore will be honored with the Friend of the University award during SEMO’s 2024 Sesquicentennial Ball on Saturday, April 6. For more information about the event, visit www.semo.edu/150ball.