C.H. Blesse - Oakland

1925 ²

Charles Henry (“C.H.”) Blesse (November 4, 1886 – August 25, 1954) was the long-time physical education director at the Athens Athletic Club, serving from its opening in 1925 until his retirement in 1949. He was also a high school physical education director and coach at Fremont High School and Oakland Technical High School.

Blesse was born Carl Friedrich Heinrich Blesse in St. Louis, Missouri to Heinrich Friedrich Wilhelm Blesse and Wilhelmine Luise Charlotte Schmale (Blesse), one of 7 children.

In 1911, he married Helen M. Chapman (Blesse) (1890 – 1920) of St. Louis, and they had two children, Charles David Blesse (1912 – 1939) and Helen Elizabeth Blesse (Brandt) (Cooney) (1915 – 1948). Sadly, Helen died of cancer just short of her 30th birthday. C.H. remarried, to Hazel Vern Rader (Blesse) (1891 – 1889) of Indiana. They had three children, John Robert Blesse (1923 – 2008), Barbara Lou Blesse (Milliken) (Silsley) (1927 – ?), and Patricia Jane Blesse (Wheaton) (1929 – ?). (NB: the first and middle names of the elder children get swapped a lot; I'm not 100% sure which order is correct.)

After some time in Los Angeles c.1912, the Blesses moved to Oakland. In 1914, C.H. was elected head of the physical training department of one of the Oakland high schools to be named later. At Fremont High School he became known for encouraging students in a variety of sports. He coached the boy's basketball team to a state championship and county championships in 1916-1917.

His coaching ability got attention. In 1919, he was appointed athletic coach at Oakland Tech:

C.H. Blesse, former coach at Fremont high school, has been appointed athletic coach at Technical. The above announcement is bound to cause a lot of talk and joy among the students, as there is no better liked coach than Blesse.
He is an all-around coach, being able to instruct in basketball, football, baseball, boxing, wrestling and every other line, and he should turn out some kind of champions the coming semester with plenty of good material at hand. Blesse is one of those coaches who will make a fellow learn it if he does not know a sport. ¹

In 1921, he began teaching fencing at the YMCA; he resigned as coach at Tech that summer. After more work with the YMCA, in 1922, Blesse was appointed associate professor of physical education at UC Berkeley. There he taught a variety of sports, from fencing to rugby, and he was mentioned as a possible men's basketball coach.

1924