Rev. Dean Baylor Jeanblanc, 79, Savannah, Ga., died on Wednesday, Oct. 31, 2012.

He was born in Illinois, the son of Charles Wesley and Justina Kate Jeanblanc, Lee Center.

He graduated from Polo High School. He received degrees from Blackburn College, Illinois Wesleyan University, Drew University, and Syracuse University.

He was honorably retired from the Presbyterian Church, USA.

His early ministry included building new churches in New Jersey before moving to rural parishes in Albany, N.Y. and Utica, N.Y.

In mid-career, after teaching sixth grade for 3 years in Whitesboro, N.Y., while doing graduate work, he became a professor of sociology and anthropology at Mohawk Valley Community College, Utica.

He was made Professor Emeritus upon his retirement.

As a professor, Jeanblanc did a research study on the migration of large numbers numbers of members of the Old Order Amish from Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Indiana to St. Lawrence County in northern New York. He was in demand as a speaker on that topic.

During his 20-plus years of college teaching, he was still active in ministry, serving as an interim pastor in more than half of the churches in the Utica Presbytery.

For 4 years, he served as president of United Ministries of Higher Education in New York State, and he was a board member of that organization for 15 years.

He was deeply involved in the civil rights movement and attended The March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom in 1963.

After his retirement from college teaching, Dean returned to full-time ministry, coming to Savannah, Ga., in 1990 to be pastor of John Knox Presbyterian Church on Waters Avenue.

He led the congregation to a merger with First Presbyterian Church.

Following the merger, he did interim work at African-American churches in the Savannah area for several years.

In recent years, Dean served as president for 5 years of the Ligon Family and Kinsmen Association, a group of Americans who are descended either from Col. Thomas Ligon, who came from England to Jamestown, Va., in 1641, or from other members of the Lygon family in England.

This family has lived in Madresfield Court, a moated manor house on 4,000 acres, for 1,000 years. There have been eight earls in the family.

The family and the house were used as models in Evelyn Waugh's novel "Brideshead Revisited."

Dean and his wife, the former Anne Willis Lockwood, have lived at the Landings on Skidaway Island outside Savannah, Ga., since 1990, and he greatly enjoyed the beauty, friendships, and amenities of the community, especially playing tennis.

Besides his wife, to whom he was married in 1982, he is survived by the following children, Deborah Lynn Jeanblanc, Delaware, Ohio, Dr. William Dean Jeanblanc, West Bath, Maine, Wesley Jeanblanc, Key West, Fla., Michael Timothy (Dr. Kimberly) Lockwood, Miamisburg, Ohio, and Joshua Willis (Robert Barry) Lockwood, New York, N.Y.; 3 grandchildren, Carlin Leigh Lockwood, Sophie Dowling Lockwood, and Theodore Timothy Lockwood; brother, Howard Jeanblanc, Phoenix, Ariz.; and sister-in-law, Dorothy (Mrs. Ernest) Jeanblanc, Polo.

A memorial service will be held at a later date at Messiah Lutheran Church on Skidaway Island, Ga.

Cremation rites were accorded by Low Country Cremation Society.

Arrangements were completed by Bradley B. Anderson Funeral Home, Glennville, Ga.