The Blair family has been very blessed and was raised to understand the importance of an education, so now they’re looking to pay it back by raising money to endow a scholarship for local students.

“One of the things our parents pushed us toward was education,” said James Blair, the 10th of 13 children born to Ossie S. and Thomas F. Blair.

The Blair parents knew the value of a robust formal education through their own lack of it.

“(My mom) was only eighth-grade educated, as was my father, through no fault of their own,” said Robert Blair, the 11th sibling. “Circumstances in their families required them to work.”

But that’s not to say the elder Blairs were unintelligent or unaccomplished. He was a road contractor who, without realizing what he was doing, taught himself calculus to use in his job. It was only discovered later when he asked one of his daughters to check his math.

“They were very intelligent; they just didn’t have a formal education,” Robert Blair said. The math gene runs in the family: “My son took advanced variable calculus at U.Va. for the fun of it, to get an easy A,” Blair said.

Mrs. Blair — well, she raised 13 children. Enough said.

“They believed in discipline, and they believed in family,” Robert Blair said.

Eleven of the 13 children went to college, and their parents helped them until tragedy struck. Thomas Blair had a terrible construction accident, one that brought all of his children home for what they thought would be their final good-bye.

But he pulled out of his coma. Doctors said he would never see, hear or speak again.

Once again, he defied them.

“It was seven years to get to the point he could start doing something,” Robert Blair said. “That taught us, whatever you do in life, never give up.”

The Blair parents were no longer able to help their last five children — all boys — go to college. So they depended on the Birdsong Trust to help them out.

“We really want to help somebody, on a need basis, because that’s what we needed,” James Blair said.

It was James’ idea to put together a scholarship to honor their parents. Several siblings are helping on the committee, and more are helping with donations.

It embodies another principle their parents taught them, besides getting an education and never giving up — paying it forward.

Even when they were in a difficult position, Robert Blair said, their parents led by example.

“My parents still would take food to people who were less well off than us,” he said. “They taught us you’re obligated to help people who are in a more difficult position than you.”

Though the elder Blairs died many years ago — he in 1984, she in 1993 — their legacy will live on in the scholarship, which is being administered through the Suffolk Foundation. If all goes well, the first award will be given next year, and the earnings from the endowment will fund scholarships in perpetuity.

“We will be giving help to deserving students in Suffolk to help them get a college education,” Robert Blair said.

For more information on the scholarship, visit www.theblairscholarship.com.