Tony Blackburn, economist and history aficionado; at 70

Tony Blackburn and his daughter Isabel.

Tony Blackburn kept a box of recorded Winston Churchill speeches in his navy blue Saab.

"If you got into the car after he'd been riding in it, this booming voice would come on," said his wife, Jill of Hayden, Idaho. "It was crazy. He did listen to them over and over again, to the point where he'd say, 'Oh, listen to this part.' "

Anthony Blackburn, a noted economist and history aficionado formerly based in Cambridge, died Oct. 16 of complications from pneumonia at North Idaho Advanced Care Hospital in Hayden. He was 70.

Mr. Blackburn was born in Antwerp, Belgium. He moved to England with his family when he was 7 and attended the Cranleigh School in Surrey, where he played rugby and was active in the theater.

He was accepted to King's College in Cambridge, England, after graduation, but postponed enrollment to serve in the British Army as a second lieutenant, spending two years in Malaya.

Mr. Blackburn earned his bachelor's degree in economics from King's College in the early 1960s. He spent several years as a teaching fellow at the University of Oxford before moving to the United States to study at MIT, where he received a doctorate in economics.

He then taught economics for seven years as an associate professor at Harvard University.

Mr. Blackburn then joined the Cambridge, Mass.-based consulting firm, Urban Systems Research & Engineering, where he ultimately became president. He researched health and human services, housing economics, transportation, and environmental affairs for federal, state, and local agencies.

Mr. Blackburn formed his firm, Speedwell Inc., in 1990 when he bought out Urban Systems Research & Engineering. He worked closely with the Ukrainian government to develop a housing policy after the fall of the Soviet Union. He also worked with New York City officials in the 1980s to establish the price index of rent-controlled and rent-stabilized apartments.

Mr. Blackburn moved with his wife in 1996 to Santa Monica, Calif., where he began to work on a book to "make capitalism work," his wife said. He and his wife retired to Idaho in 2007 to raise their youngest daughter.

"Tony was a gentle man of eclectic tastes, with a wry sense of humor, a remarkable intellect, and a generous spirit, sometimes to a fault," his wife said.

Mr. Blackburn also enjoyed studying history and American politics, and was particularly interested in this election year.

"He really charmed people," she said. "It was a rare person that didn't warm to him immediately. He was a risk-taker. He was incredibly self-sacrificing."

After arriving in the United States, Mr. Blackburn fell in love with football and began to cheer for the New England Patriots.

During his time in Massachusetts, Mr. Blackburn met with colleague and longtime friend Karl Case to play squash every Sunday morning for about 25 years. "I would talk to him for hours," said Case, a professor at Wellesley College. "It was great - it was like a ritual."

Case described Mr. Blackburn as a "brilliant economist" and a loyal friend.

"He was a tremendous, tremendous guy," Case said. "We'll miss him."

Mr. Blackburn enjoyed traveling, reading, swimming, biking, and planting trees with his wife.

"Tony was my animated shovel, and I think he was proud of it," she said. "He would do all the heavy lifting and was quite proud of himself for doing his job."

In addition to his wife of 26 years, Mr. Blackburn leaves four daughters, Emma, Esmé of Arlington, Andrea of Hayden, and Isabel of Hayden.

A memorial service will be held in Boston this spring.

Correction: Because of a reporting error, an obituary in yesterday's newspaper of Anthony Blackburn, a noted economist and history aficionado formerly based in Cambridge, misidentified him in several references.