Blackwell was educated at U Illinois, gaining his PhD (supervised by Doob) at the age of 22. In 1944 he joined the faculty of Howard U, where he published the result now called the Rao–Blackwell theorem. In 1954 he moved to UCB. President of the IMS in 1956, he was its Rietz Lecturer in 1961 and its Wald Lecturer in 1976. In 1986 he was the COPSS Fisher Lecturer. In 1965 he was elected to the NAS (the first African-American to be so honoured) and in 1969 to the AAAS. He was President of the Bernoulli Society in 1975 and was made an Honorary Fellow of the RSS in 1976.

http://projecteuclid.org/DPubS?service=UI&version=1.0&verb=Display&handle=euclid.ss/1177013814 Fuller biography, interview, and photographs.