If you would have asked Doug Blaze 40 years ago what he wanted to do with his life, he would have told you he wanted nothing to do with a desk job.
“Everybody I knew wanted to be a lawyer or a doctor, and that’s not what I wanted to do,” he said. “I didn’t want to sit at a desk and be stuck behind a computer. I wanted to work outside.”
Blaze had a passion for geology, pursued a degree in that field at Dickinson College in Pennsylvania, and in 1976 he went to work with the South Dakota Geological Survey performing scientific investigations on the state’s geologic and hydrologic resources.
But plans and passions change.
Blaze said it was after he hiked the Appalachian Trail and worked briefly with the Appalachian Trail Conservancy – the non-profit that works to protect, manage and advocate for the trail – that he realized his avocation should not be his vocation.
“I would be hiking along and see something and think, I need to fix that,” he said. “I decided the best way to apply what I had learned, and to do what I really cared about, was to go to law school.”
Blaze followed that dream, enrolling in Georgetown University for law school and graduating in 1984. He worked two years for a private law firm before beginning his career as a law professor at Arizona State University. In 1993, he made his way back toward the Appalachian Trail and the part of the country he loves most.
Today, ironically, you’ll most likely find Blaze seated at a computer doing much of his work seated behind a desk in the dean’s office at the College of Law.
Blaze stepped into the role of dean for the second time in July after former Dean Melanie Wilson resigned to return to a position as a faculty member. A national search for the position yielded three finalists who visited campus just as the COVID-19 pandemic was surfacing. The search failed when the top candidate refused the offer.
Blaze, who was planning his retirement at the time he agreed to serve as interim dean, said he didn’t anticipate the level of crisis management he’s experienced throughout his several months on the job.
“COVID was just getting started when I stepped into this,” he said. “I think we all thought it would go away.”
Blaze has committed to serve as interim dean through Summer 2022, and in the time he has remaining he said his primary objective will be to keep the college students, faculty and staff safe while effectively carrying on the business of the College of Law.
He also hopes to apply what the college has learned from COVID and “embrace experiential and distance education going forward,” he said.
In the aftermath of the death of George Floyd, the college is also reexamining policies and procedures related to diversity and inclusion.
“We’ve got to become even more purposeful about being an inclusive and welcoming environment, and an increasingly diverse environment,” Blaze said.
As a scholar in the areas of civil procedure, criminal law, professional responsibility and leadership, Blaze has used his expertise in several ways to the benefit of the College of Law.
During his first term serving as dean from 2008 to 2015, he helped students establish UT Pro Bono, the college’s student-directed and staff-supported community service organization. He also established a full-time paid administrative position that was later converted to a fellowship program dedicated to directing public interest initiatives.
After leaving the dean’s position in 2015, Blaze established the College of Law’s Institute for Professional Leadership and became its first director.
When he ends his time as interim dean, Blaze says he’ll likely return to that avocation that he still loves.
“I’m excited to do this work. It’s a great way to ride into the sunset before I retire,” he said, and he’s like to see a lot more sunsets in the future.
“My wife and I have talked about renting an RV and spending three months traveling across the country,” he said. “So I want to travel I want to be with my family and my wife.”
“I want to hike. I want to hike. I want to hike!”
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This story was originally appeared in the Spring 2021 edition of Tennessee Law, the alumni magazine of the University of Tennessee College of Law.