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Howard T. Blanchard has throughout his more than half century of active participation in the architectural profession exemplified the highest standards of service and practice at the local, state and national levels.

A native of Amorita, Oklahoma, Howard Blanchard graduated from Wichita High School in 1927 and completed studies for the B.S. iin Architecture at Kansas State in 1932 at the depth of the Great Depression. Four years later, he founded his own office in Garden City, Kansas, where except for a period of military service during World War II including duty in England, Europe and North Africa, he has been in continuous practice. His efforts on behalf of Garden City service, civic and business groups and even his three decades of leadership in the Garden City-Finney County Metropolitan Planning Commission as Vice Chairman and then for 26 years as Chairman during a long period of dramatic population growth, might be expected from a leading professional in a small Kansas city. But Howard Blanchard's leadership, extraordinary energy and desire to serve were also being recognized and tapped in areas far removed from his adopted home in western Kansas.

Kansas State University sought his counsel for study and advisory groups and as a member of the Advisory Council of the College of Architecture and Design. For a decade, Howard Blanchard served as a Trustee of the KSU Endowment Association. For 19 years, he served on the Kansas Registration and Examination Board of Architects including 6 years as its Chairman. Then, when the 1976 legislature combined the separate boards for architects, engineers, landscape architects and surveyors into a new State Board of Technical Professions, it was Howard T. Blanchard who was called upon to serve as its first Chairman. The membership of the Kansas Chapter of the American Institute of Architects regularly looked to Howard T. Blanchard for leadership and he consistently performed with distinction, serving a term as President and in a host of other capacities since becoming a member in 1945.

The National Council of Architectural Registration Boards elected Blanchard to its Board of Directors in 1963, made him Secretary in 1965 and 1966, First Vice President in 1967 and President in 1968. The American Institute of Architects bestowed its highest honor on Howard T. Blanchard when he was elevated to Fellowship in the Institute.

Officially, Howard Blanchard is, at 75, in retirement. Yet, he can be found each day at the offices of the firm he founded reviewing the work of his colleagues, drawing on his enormous store of knowledge about architecture and the Garden City region to answer questions and offer advice. And, Howard Blanchard's counsel on a host of matters continues to be sought by architects across the state and region. Throughout his extraordinary career, Howard T. Blanchard has been an exemplary servant of his community, his hundreds of clients, his profession, his state and his country. He is richly deserving of the Kansas State University Distinguished Service Award.