Classmate bio: Blair Huckabee Dean

Name: Blair (Huckabee) Dean

Family: Husband, Derek; sons, Crockett (11) and River (6); dog, Zack

Location: Jonesboro, Arkansas

"Active” is the word Blair Huckabee Dean says would probably have best described the way her high school classmates would remember her, and the word that would best describe her now.

It would be hard to argue.

In high school, Blair started on the state championship volleyball team, was a cheerleader on a squad that made nationals our senior year, and played tennis.

Today, as an associate professor in Health, P.E. and Sport Sciences at Arkansas State, she runs marathons, advises educators around the world about physical education for children, serves on at least six boards related to physical activities and children's health, and she's the mother of two growing sons.

“The most important thing I’ve done is earn the title Mom,” Blair says.

Blair met husband Derek Dean while attending Arkansas State, where she graduated with a master’s degree in 4 years. “He played football at ASU and we stumbled upon [each other] in the classroom -- the rest is history,” Blair recalls.

They were married in 1993 and sons Crockett (right, below) and River came along in 1997 and 2001, respectively.

"I can't talk about my family without mentioning a life changing moment when River was diagnosed with Guillain Barre Syndrome (GBS),” Blair said. “My son's fight with GBS became a big athletic competition my family was competing in. It was God, the Deans, the doctors, and the treatments versus everything the illness could stack up against us.

“Whether that was the unbearable nerve pain in his feet, the paralysis of his lower body--or all the other effects that go along with having GBS--to us, it was a fight we were determined to win together. We all held on till the end and the interesting thing is that competition has been one of the most positive, life-affirming, incredible experiences ever.”

Coming from a long line of educators, including her father who taught theater at ASU and her mother who had several positions in Jonesboro schools, Blair said she knew she wanted to be a P.E. teacher in the 8th grade. But after teaching private and public school a few years, she “discovered that blowing a whistle was not my calling” and moved on to being a college professor.

And, yes, she runs marathons. In mid-April, Blair will be running the Boston Marathon along with a cousin named Mike -- former Arkansas governor and recent Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee. (He is to the right of Blair in the picture below; the other guy is Dean Karnazes, an ultramathon runner who Blair describes as "the fittest man in the world...I'm serious.")

Blair has run in so many marathons that she thinks other people might find it boring.

“People get tired of reading/hearing about the ‘26.2’ and most people know I love to run...and to most people that is the least bit interesting. But one thing they don't know is that it is not necessarily the ‘running’ that I enjoy most but the journey where and with whom running takes me.”

Running once took Blair to Greece with friend Bridgette Lloyd Inboden (JHS class of ’87) to run the Athens Marathon. After finishing the original 26.2-mile route, Blair and Bridgette decided to leap a railing, with security mysteriously absent, into the Panathenaic Olympic Stadium, where they did a victory lap around the ancient, but off-limits, site.

“We were chased out of the stadium scared to death for our lives. I’m not sure what the security guards were yelling … it all sounded Greek to me. Huge lesson learned … don’t trespass in foreign countries where they don’t speak the Arkansas Drawl.”