Flooring exec, business leader John ‘Mike’ Blakley dies

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John “Mike” Blakley, the former president and CEO of Indianapolis-based Blakley Corp., died Wednesday. He was 76.

Blakley, a Fishers resident, served as CEO and president for the specialty contractor and home-flooring retailer from 1974 to 2012. He retired as CEO in 2012, but stayed on as chairman of the company, which his grandfather founded in 1898 as a maker of granite cemetery markers.

In addition to the firm’s headquarters on 88th Street in Indianapolis, Blakley's has a retail flooring showroom on 116th Street in Carmel.

Blakley also served on the board of directors for Conner Prairie Interactive History Park and Goodwill Industries of Central Indiana, and was the 2011 chairman of the Indiana Chamber of Commerce. He also was a longtime board member for Marsh Supermarkets Inc.

He received his bachelor’s degree in urban land economics from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. Blakley also graduated from the U.S. Air Force Flight School and served as a pilot with the Indiana National Guard.

Vistation will be 4-7 p.m. Oct. 9 at Leppert Mortuary & Crematory Services on 86th Street, and the funeral will be at 10 a.m. Oct. 10 at St. Luke's United Methodist Church. 

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