When Dick Blakeley went to work at the Colorado Fuel and Iron Company in 1977, the great Pueblo steel mill was the fiery heart and soul of an entire city and Colorado's only heavy-industry behemoth.

Enormous blast furnaces roared 24 hours a day, transforming iron ore and carbon into steel.

Mr. Blakeley's sacred mission? To oversee the safety and well-being of more than 5,000 workers performing some of the most dangerous jobs in the world.

"He was totally committed to his work," said his daughter, Lynne Brunjak. "Whenever someone was injured, he took it very personally, and he was always there for the family. When there was a death on the job, he was absolutely devastated."

Mr. Blakeley, who served for two decades as the mill's director of safety and security, died suddenly Feb. 5 at his Pueblo West home after suffering a brain aneurysm. He was 75.

Richard Dyke Blakeley was born Feb. 27, 1933, in Wellington, Ohio. After graduating from Bethany College in West Virginia and earning a master's degree in business from Indiana University, he learned the steel business, top to bottom, working in U.S. Steel mills in McKeesport, Pa., and Lorain, Ohio. His next job, as safety director for a Xerox plant in upstate New York, left him unsatisfied.

"Dick missed the noise and the dirt and the heat of the mill," said his wife of almost 50 years, Peggy Fallot Blakeley. "So we came to Pueblo."

On Mr. Blakeley's watch, CF&I underwent big changes. In 1977, he headed a 20-officer security force, but that was later cut in half. After an economic downturn in 1982, the company shut down the Pueblo furnaces and coke plant, reduced its work force to about 2,000 and turned the mill into a scrap-steel recycling plant. Today, Evraz Rocky Mountain Steel Co. is Russian-owned and employs 1,000.

Even in its declining years, the mill produced great dangers and stirred constant vigilance in Mr. Blakeley.

"By nature, what we do is hazardous," said a former safety colleague and friend, Bill Lundsted, who still works at the plant. "Everything we have in the mill is hot or heavy - or both. Dick was always aware of his huge responsibilities, always the most ethical and passionate man."

Mr. Blakeley was an award-winning member of the American Society of Safety Engineers and the National Association of Safety Professionals. He also was active in Kiwanis Club and a past president of the Pueblo Country Club, where he played golf for 30 years.

In addition to his wife, Mr. Blakeley is survived by two daughters, Lynne Brunjak, of Pueblo West, and Cathy Blakeley, of Thornton; a son, Richard, of Ortonville, Mich.; a sister, Audrey Lance, of Wellington, Ohio, and three grandchildren.