A couple scheduled for pre-marital counseling was late for their appointment with Rev. Richard C. Blanchard Sr., at his church in Coral Gables, Florida. Wanting to make better use of his time, the Methodist pastor told his secretary that he'd be in a nearby Sunday school room that had a piano. Within six minutes of sitting at the piano, he'd composed words to a hymn based on Jesus' encounter with the Samaritan woman at a well (John 4), Twenty minutes later, he had a tune to it. And that's how “Fill My Cup, Lord” came to be, in 1953. He later said of that song: “It came from God. There is no other way to explain it.” The song would reach a larger audience through the ministry of his friend who was a musician and evangelist.
Born in China in 1925 to Methodist missionary parents, he grew up in Indiana and North Carolina. His mother taught him piano and he learned to play trombone in school band. He also earned to play anything by ear, including music of the Big Band era, and had a beautiful tenor voice. Blanchard attended college one year and then enlisted in the U.S. Navy. But lung problems (after two surgeries, he'd eventually be reduced to one-third of his lung capacity) led to his medical discharge. Finishing college, he married and had three children, and after a degree in theology was ordained to what would be 40 years of ministry in the Methodist Church, mostly in Florida.
Despite his health challenges, he was a man of many interests: boating, dining by the water, traveling (he visited more than 75 countries), fine art and art museums, sports, word games like Scrabble ®, stamp- and coin-collecting. He also wrote many Gospel songs, a musical titled “Francis of Assisi” performed before 600, a weekly regional church paper column, and a story published in the popular “Ideals” magazine. He also wrote the official biography of a Methodist bishop, John Branscomb, for whom he was an assistant minister in the 4,000-member First Methodist Church in Orlando, Florida.
Blanchard's family also faced challenges. Two children would precede him in death: a son left a quadriplegic after an accident at age 17, and one of his two daughters. Those experiences led him to value hospital visitation. In retirement and declining health after 2000, he found a new ministry from his bed through telephoning members of former churches. He died at age 79 in North Carolina.
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