Blakeney Stafford
April 25, 1942-May 12, 2024
Palo Alto, California

It is with a heavy heart that we announce the passing of Blakeney Stafford on May 12, 2024. Blake was born in Sommerville, NJ, to William Lafayette Stafford and Dorothy Bresnahan Stafford. Blake attended Princeton University, where he studied history and played varsity baseball. He played left field for the team, and was a power hitter. He became the first Princeton player to hit a fair ball out of Clarke Field, a 360-foot blast.

Blake met many life-long friends at Princeton and loved to share stories about his time there. He also graduated from Stanford University Law School, and NYU School of Law. Blake met Virginia Mason Elmer at Princeton. They married shortly after, and moved to Chile. While there he drafted VAT law legislation for the country. They had two children during their marriage, Page and Amanda.

Years later, Blake and Julianne Lundberg were married in Venice, Italy, and enjoyed 32 years of marriage. Grace and Nelson are their children. They lived in Palo Alto.

Blake was a proud founding partner of the Silicon Valley law firm Fenwick & West. He spent decades building the firm and attracting lawyers and clients to the firm. He was proud to say that the firm did the work to take public many iconic Silicon Valley technology companies. A major client and long-time friend, golf course designer Robert Trent Jones II, called on Blake to write contracts (or books), close deals around the world, and ‘make it happen.’ He tapped a rich vein of stories from these years.

Blake had a strong interest in geology, and spent many years managing a partnership that developed a large gold prospect in Macedonia. The challenges were many doing business in Macedonia, and it became a larger ‘motherlode’ of interesting stories and friendships than the gold.

Blake had a life-long love of animals which he shared with his children. Many of his childhood pictures included a dog, and he almost always had a dog or three as pets. He also loved to feed neighborhood squirrels and birds, especially the scrub jays and crows. Most of his jacket pockets had a few dog treats and peanuts to share.

After his retirement from the law, Blake continued to savor his connections with his many friends, to share stories, talk about books, politics, and current events. He continued to create connections among all the people he knew, young and old. Also, Blake took every opportunity to study his family history, the Norman, English, and Irish sides of his family.

The family gathered together in Blake’s final weeks to tend to him at home, and to reminisce on all the adventures we shared that continue to draw us together. Blake loved to share his stories, and we savored the fun and funny, the serious and challenging adventures that Blake recalled from his life and career.

Blake spoke most proudly of his four children, Page Stafford, Amanda Stafford, Grace Stafford, Nelson Stafford, and five grandchildren, Audrey Briales-Stafford, Dylan Stafford, Dante Stafford, Brandon Cast, and Pablo De la Iglesia-Stafford, all of whom are living well, are connected to their communities, and are following their dreams.

Tags: business