Robert O. and Margaret C. Blood Papers

Margaret McKee Cheek was born Sept 1, 1918. Her father, Powell Cheek, was a divinity professor at Centre College in Kentucky. She received a BA from Mount Holyoke and MA from Yale Divinity School. At Yale she met her future husband, Robert O. Blood, Jr. He was the son of New Hampshire governor Robert O. Blood and Pauline Shepherd Blood. Born August 15, 1921, Bob Blood became of member of the Society of Friends at Weare Monthly Meeting, N.H. He graduated from Dartmouth College in 1942 and attended Yale Divinity School. They married in 1944 and moved to Ann Arbor in 1952 when Bob Blood joined the faculty of the University of Michigan’s Sociology Department. He taught at the University of Michigan until his retirement in 1967.

Margaret and Bob were very active in Ann Arbor Monthly Meeting. Bob Blood was instrumental in the Meeting’s launching of an international student co-op, constructing a meeting house, and the establishment of Lake Erie Yearly Meeting. In 1965, the Bloods withheld the portion of their federal income tax that paid for the Vietnam War with the result that the government confiscated money from their bank account. Margaret headed up the religious education program for many years. Bob Blood was also active in the Advancement Committee of Friends World Conference. He died April 17, 1988.

After his death, Margaret continued to be active in Quaker concerns. She became clerk of the Monthly Meeting and played a central role in developing Michigan Friends Center, which opened in 1994. This conference and retreat center at Friends Lake Community in Chelsea, Michigan, had been a special dream of her husband. Margaret was very involved in social causes; she was a founding member of Women’s Strike for Peace and Clergy and Laity Concerned in Ann Arbor. Later concerns included support for Central American refugees, and for gay and lesbian couples.

During one of their first summers together, Margaret and Bob worked with Japanese Americans in the internment camp in Rohwer, Arkansas. This led to a life-long interest in Japan. They lived in the Tokyo area in 1958-1959 as part of a Fulbright fellowship. After returning from Japan after a second long stay, 1967-1969, the Bloods joined the staff of Pendle Hill, the Quaker study center in Wallingford, Pa. In 1973, they went back to Ann Arbor. They both earned licenses as clinical social workers and developed a private practice in individual and couple therapy. They created a small retreat center using their own house and the house next door. Until Bob’s death in 1988, they led hundreds of weekend workshops there and around the country. Margaret incorporated her passion for music and creativity, using masks, rhythm instruments, and other art objects to encourage spiritual growth in her workshops. Margaret Blood moved to Kendal-Crosslands in 1994. She died at the age of 81 on Oct 2, 1999