Date of Birth: 
About Geoffrey Blackburn
- Geoffrey Herbert Blackburn OAM (7 November 1914 – 13 July 2014) was a Baptist minister who served as Secretary and President General of the Baptist Union of Australia. Blackburn was born in Melbourne in 1914 and began his ministry as a home missionary at Beechworth Baptist church in 1934.
- He completed his studies at the Baptist College of Victoria in 1939, obtaining B.A.
- and LTh degrees, and ministered in the parishes of Hopetoun and Elsternwick.
- He also served as an army chaplain during World War II. In 1947 Blackburn was appointed as the Baptist Union of Victoria's first full-time Youth Director, during which time he completed a B.Ed.
- at the University of Melbourne.
- He served in the capacity of Editor of Sunday School Publications from 1949 to 1972, before returning to parish ministry at Syndal until his retirement in 1986.
- In addition to this, Blackburn was Secretary of the Baptist Union of Australia from 1949 to 1971 and its President General from 1971 to 1975.
- He also served as Vice-President of the Baptist World Alliance from 1975 to 1980.Blackburn obtained an M.A.
- from the University of Melbourne in 1965, examining the development of the Jewish elementary school.
- In 1969 he received a PhD from the same institution.
- His doctoral thesis involved methods of biblical study in the Early Christian Church.
- He also obtained a DMin from Fuller Theological Seminary in 1991, writing on cross-cultural ministry. Blackburn was granted the Medal of the Order of Australia in 1998 for "service to the Baptist church".
- The Geoffrey Blackburn Library at Whitley College is named in his honour, and he was one of the inaugural inductees into the Camberwell Grammar School Gallery of Achievement.
- Rowland Croucher described Blackburn as one of the four most admired Australian Baptists, alongside G.
- H.
- Morling, F.
- W.
- Boreham and Noel Vose.After his official retirement Blackburn engaged in several interim ministries in Victorian churches, including Heathmont and Diamond Valley Baptist Churches.
- From 2001 he served as part-time Pastoral Care minister at Scots' Church, Melbourne.
- In April 2012 Blackburn retired for the final time, at the age of 97.
- In 1940 he married Edna Atkins, who died in 1967.
- They had two sons.
- In 1969 he married Jessie Campbell, who died 29 March 2019.
- He was survived by Jessie, sons Keith and Alan and five grandchildren.
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