Blood approved many bills passed by the 1937 legislature but warned about the future cost of retirement funds, the governor's mansion, vocational and adult education programs, and a junior college in Price (now the College of Eastern Utah). He also signed a direct primary election law. By 1939 he was even more cost conscious and vetoed proposals for junior colleges in Richfield and Roosevelt, as well as low-cost housing and slum clearance, medical and dental cooperatives, and a miner's hospital addition to the Ogden sanatorium. He sought amendments to the state constitution to make the judiciary nonpartisan, promoted tourism, and worked to improve Utah's terrible highway safety record.

In January 1941 Blood accepted a call to serve as a mission president in California for the LDS Church. He died in Salt Lake City in 1942 following a short illness.

Miriam B. Murphy