Helen "Lenny" Stokes Morris Blackwood loved to walk, bike, canoe, sail and garden — anything that she could do outdoors.
"She was interested in organic gardening and food. When we were growing up, she was using composting and mulch versus chemicals," said a son, Terence "Terry" Blackwood of Richmond.
She spent 1,300 hours as a volunteer at Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden in Richmond during the past 12 years.
Above all, her son said, she "believed strongly in our duty to better the world around us, especially our relation to the natural world."
Years volunteering with the League of Women Voters led her to serve on many citizen committees involved with the Chesapeake Bay, the James River, soil and water conservation, water and air quality, preservation of farmland and other urban planning issues.
Mrs. Blackwood, a green spaces preservationist and community philanthropist, died Feb. 7 in a Henrico hospital at 81. She was a resident of Cedarfield retirement community in Henrico.
A memorial service for the Chester County, Pa., native will be today, Saturday, at 11 a.m. at First Unitarian Church of Richmond, 1000 Blanton Ave., where she was a member for 43 years.
Mrs. Blackwood, who earned a master's degree in urban and regional planning in 1986 from Virginia Commonwealth University, was instrumental in persuading Henrico County officials to create the 167-acre Deep Run Park, a green oasis with two ponds that partly had been used as a hunt club. It opened in 1986 at 9900 Ridgefield Parkway.
"She saw that as the last large space in the western part of the county," her son said. "She made sure they would keep that here."
Mrs. Blackwood and her late husband, Matthew Temple "Tim" Blackwood, who had lived in Philadelphia, moved to Richmond in 1969. In 1974, they bought a 16-acre farm off Three Chopt Road called Cedarfield. They lived there for 12 years, adding parcels that brought their property to 48 wooded acres.
They sold Cedarfield to Virginia United Methodist Homes Inc. in 1986 to become part of the site of a 90-acre retirement community called The Hermitage at Cedarfield.
"Part of the property — about 7 acres — was deeded as a green space," said Christopher Henderson, CEO of Virginia United Methodist Homes. "If you're standing in the fellowship hall and look beyond the fountain to the trees, that's the nature preserve.
"The Blackwoods encouraged us to preserve green space, and there is a lot of green space beyond the preserve."
Her son said she lived at Cedarfield her last two years, where "she loved to walk in the woods. She did until the last week of her life."
In addition to her son, survivors include another son, Temple Blackwood of St. Paul, Minn.; two daughters, Eileen Blackwood of Burlington, Vt., and Laurie Blackwood of Albuquerque, N.M.; and five grandchildren.
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