Dr. Blake Billings '77

Blake graduated from Portsmouth Abbey School in 1977, arriving as a boarding student in Form IV from his hometown of South Berwick, Maine. After attending Dartmouth College, Blake participated in the Jesuit Volunteer Corps, working in an inner-city parish in Oakland, CA. He then attended graduate school in theology, earning master’s degrees in religious studies and philosophy from the Catholic University of Louvain in Belgium. Blake first joined the Abbey faculty in the fall of 1987, teaching Christian doctrine, coaching baseball, and living on campus until 1990. He then earned his doctorate in philosophy, magna cum laude, from Louvain, focusing on Emmanuel Levinas, a 20th-Century philosopher whose ethical philosophy was highly praised by John Paul II.
 
After teaching philosophy at St. John’s University in New York City, Fairfield University and Sacred Heart University in Connecticut, Blake decided to return to the more holistic educational environment at the secondary school level. He rejoined the faculty of Portsmouth in 1996 and was named the director of Christian Community Service. He also helped to create the School’s Humanities Program, teaching in that interdisciplinary program for 10 years. Blake served as the head of the Christian Doctrine Department and Director of Spiritual Life for eight years. He has also been involved in the school’s musical programs, currently serving as the liturgical director of the Schola, the School’s liturgical music ensemble. Over the years, Blake has developed close ties to the School’s Korean community, traveling frequently to Seoul since 1996; he received a fellowship through the Korea Society. He has also directed the School’s pilgrimage to Lourdes and helped to foster Portsmouth’s developing friendship with the Manquehue Apostolic Movement in Chile..
 
Blake lives on campus with his wife, Jillian Fenton, where they have raised their children. Fen ’15, John ’17, Lucia ’18, and Teresa '20.