Obituary of Nowell Arthur Blake, II
Nowell Arthur Blake II was born on February 4, 1957 in Norfolk, VA to Nowell Arthur Blake and Moira MacKenzie Blake. They settled in Bernardsville, NJ, and he spent most of his life in this area. At Bernards High, he excelled in cross country and track. He also created his own dark room, where he would spend hours diving into the world of photography. He attended Ohio University and later, the School for Visual Arts in NYC, both to further his love for photography.
After university, he moved back to NJ where he became class taught with the Christian Science Church and met Nancy Tule who he went on to marry in 1995. They settled in Long Valley, NJ and served as First and Second Reader at the Bernardsville Christian Science Church for four years. Nowell always had an affinity for the arts, and this translated well into the landscape design business that he created and ran after attending Rutgers University for this subject.
His integrity, as well as his quick wit and sly sense of humor, left an impression on those he met. His love for cooking and for cultivating plants were evident throughout his life. He was a gentle soul whose love extended to all living beings, and he usually had a cat for a pet. He even rescued a feral cat from Greensboro, NC and drove it all the way home with him to NJ.
He was magnanimous and told his sister that he hadn’t applied for social security yet because he felt there were many who could use it more than him. When asked what he’d like for his birthday or Christmas, he’d often request a donation made to his favorite charity, and he left his largest investment account to charities serving marginalized groups in our country.
He moved back to the family home in Bernardsville for the last years of his life for the solitude it afforded and to help care for his mother, who passed away in September, 2022. He was still living there when he passed in April, 2024.
Nowell is survived by his sister, Wendy Nitsos of Hilton Head Island, SC, his niece, Alexandra Nitsos of Boston, MA and his nephew, Jason Nitsos of Greensboro, NC, the three of whom held a small service to inter his ashes near his parents at the Somerset Hills Memorial Park in Basking Ridge, NJ.