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Driving skills had little to do with Lloyd Blackburn’s 30-year career in the U.S. Forest Service, where he served as a cartographer photogrammetrist — basically a mapmaker for government-owned lands.
Upon retirement, he found himself steering in a new direction.
In 2011, he attended an AARP Driver Safety course, mostly for the discount he could get on his car insurance. He liked it so much he became an AARP volunteer instructor himself. And now, the 76-year-old is one of the most prolific instructors nationwide. In 2023, he taught 58 courses — second among AARP instructors in the country. (The course changed names from Driver Safety to Smart Driver in 2014.)
For his commitment to helping others, Blackburn received the AARP 2024 Andrus Award for Community Service, the top volunteer award in each state. It’s named for AARP founder Dr. Ethel Percy Andrus.
Paulette Welch, a volunteer who coordinates Smart Driver courses in Utah, first met Blackburn when he was a student in that 2011 class and she was the instructor. “I realized that ... he was somebody who was a giver and was interested in serving the community,” she says.
“He’s always got a big smile,” she adds. “He’s engaging, and he’s just joyful and enthusiastic.”
For Blackburn, the role fit with his desire to serve the community. “Volunteering was bred into me by my parents at a very early age — and it also gave me something to do in my spare time,” he says.
Blackburn, who lives in West Valley City, has taught more than 300 sessions at Salt Lake County senior centers and community sites. Welch says it’s unusual for somebody to get so many classes in a relatively small state like Utah.
So what will you learn if you join one of his classes?
All AARP Smart Driver courses — which are geared toward those 50 and over — cover the impact of medications on driving, state-specific rules and regulations, techniques to reduce driver distractions, and other safe-driving strategies.
Driving can be difficult — even if you've been doing it for decades
Blackburn says he emphasizes driver awareness — of a driver’s own physical ability, of vehicle electronic characteristics, of mirror positioning, and of roadway features and conditions.
“The most important thing is to help people become aware of what it is that they’re doing out there — to remember what it was like when they first started driving, how difficult it was,” he says. “It has not lost that difficulty. You just aren’t aware of it.”
Beyond the classes, Blackburn is generous with his time, says Welch.
“You can call him up at lunch and say, ‘Lloyd, I have five people who are interested in doing a CarFit after my class. Could you come and help me at 3?’ ” she says. He’ll be there. (CarFit is an educational program developed by AARP and the American Occupational Therapy Association and teaches seat adjustment and other “fit” features for safer driving.)
Also dedicated to greyhound rescues, Blackburn and his wife have adopted or fostered more than three dozen since 2002. He’s volunteered to use his photo skills to photograph greyhound rescue events, and he’s also been a docent volunteer at a nearby bird sanctuary.
Rita Beamish, based in California, is a former Associated Press reporter and San Francisco Chronicle editor. She has written for the Bulletin for 16 years.
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