Obit: State Department Official James J. Blake, 87

James J. Blake, 87, a retired Foreign Service officer who served as ambassador to Iceland and as deputy assistant secretary of state for African affairs, died April 25 of complications from a broken hip at the Washington Home in the District. He was a District resident.

Mr. Blake was a history teacher at Peru State Teachers College (now Peru State College) in Peru, Neb., before joining the Foreign Service in 1947. His overseas assignments, in addition to Iceland, included Belgium, India and Libya. During the 1967 Arab-Israeli war, he was deputy chief of mission in Tripoli, where he coordinated the air evacuation of approximately 4,000 American citizens from Libya.

In Washington, he was director of North African affairs before his appointment as deputy assistant secretary. He also served on the Army staff at the Pentagon as a political military officer concerned with strategic planning. He served as ambassador to Iceland from 1976 to 1978 and retired in 1981 as coordinator of the State Department's Senior Seminar.

He was born James Joseph Blake in New York and served in the Army during World War II. Participating in the Rhineland and Ruhr campaigns, he received the Bronze Star Medal as a combat infantryman.

He received his undergraduate degree in history, with honors, from Queens College in 1946.

In retirement, Mr. Blake volunteered for nearly 20 years at the Washington Home, served as a Eucharistic minister at St. Ann's Catholic Church in Tenleytown and was a member of the Arimathea Society. He was a life member of the New-York Historical Society and a member of the American Foreign Service Association.

Mr. Blake's first wife, Dolores Quaid Blake, died in 1977.

Survivors include his wife of 22 years, Brenda M. Dawson of Glamorgan, Wales; four children from the first marriage, Stephen Blake of Rockville, Kathleen Blake of Albuquerque, David Blake and Robert Blake, both of New York; four stepchildren from the second marriage, Anthony Dawson of Eastbourne, East Sussex, England, Gillian Dawson of London, Sarah Whitehead of Caerwent, Wales, and Catherine Dawson of Byfleet, Surrey, England; and seven grandchildren.

-- Joe Holley