Dr. James F. Blue, Jr. was born Nov. 6, 1930, in Carthage, to Barbara Leslie Blue and James Franklin Blue. He graduated from Pinckney High School in 1949. He excelled in basketball, baseball and was the first quarterback for Pinckney's football team. He attended Johnson C. Smith University in Charlotte for one semester. He dropped out to become employed at various hotels in Pinehurst and other cities along the East Coast for eight years.

In 1957 he married Addie L. Walls and entered N.C. A. & T. State University in Greensboro, majoring in physical education. He graduated summa cum laude in 1961 and received a Danforth Foundation Fellowship for a year of study at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He was one of the first African-American students to attend UNC, earning a master's degree in physical education and recreation education in 1962 with honors. He returned to Greensboro to teach at Lincoln Junior High School. He left that position in 1963 to become an instructor of physical education at North Carolina College in Durham. The remainder of his working life was spent at NCCU where in September 1969, he became dean of students. In 1971, as a Ford Foundation fellow, he took a leave-of-absence and returned to UNC to begin study for a doctorate in higher education. In 1972 he became vice chancellor for student affairs at NCCU. He received his doctorate in 1978, and in 1982, he returned to teaching until his retirement in 1995.

Dr. Blue joined the John Hall Presbyterian Church as a teenager, and at 26 became the church's youngest elder. After many years he transferred his membership to Covenant Presbyterian Church, where he was a member of the Session, the Men's Council, and sang with the Senior Choir.

He died Friday, April 3, 2009.

Surviving are his wife, Barbara Sellers Blue; daughter; Regina Blue-Soloman; son James F. Blue III; step-daughter, Michele Burgess; six grandchildren; sister, Azalia Blue Hosey, and many nieces, nephews, cousins and other relatives in his large and loving family.

A funeral will be held Tuesday, April 7, 2009, at Covenant Presbyterian Church, 2620 East Weaver Street in Durham. The family will receive visitors at 10:30 a.m. and the service will begin at 11 a.m. A private interment will be held at the cemetery of John Hall Presbyterian Church in Carthage following the funeral.

In lieu of flowers memorial gifts in his name should be made to the following: The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, 401 Harrison Oaks Boulevard, Suite 200, Cary, NC 27513; Covenant Presbyterian Church, Mortgage Retirement Fund, 2620 East Weaver Street, Durham, NC 27704 or American Heart Association, 3131 RDU Center Drive Morrisville, NC, 27560.