Alvah Thompson Blades, a Methodist stalwart who combined the Golden Rule with an astute business sense in operating one of the nation's most successful trucking companies, died in his sleep Thursday at his Easton home. He was 94.

Until stepping down as board chairman of Preston Corp. in 1986, Mr. Blades had operated Preston "The 151 Line" Trucking Co. for more than half a century.

Known as A.T., Mr. Blades was born and raised in the Caroline County community of Bethlehem, the son of a general store keeper. He graduated from high school in Preston and the Goldie Beacom Business School in Wilmington, Del.

He began his business career in the late 1920s as an accountant for Albert W. Sisk & Son, a Preston canned-goods brokerage firm.

With the onset of the Depression, when it was difficult for Sisk & Son to sell railroad carloads of goods to customers, the idea of selling partial loads, carried by motor truck, occurred to company officials.

"Preston Trucking came out of Sisk & Son. In the early days of the Depression, when people started buying hand-to-mouth, they started saying automatically, 'Ship it by truck,'" Mr. Blades told The Sun in a 1974 interview.

"They asked him if he had any ideas and gave him $500 to start a trucking company that eventually became his own," said a nephew, David Harper Jr. of Preston.

From its beginnings in 1932, Preston Trucking Co. grew from a regional carrier into one of the nation's biggest trucking firms - its trucks painted orange, white and black seen from coast to coast.

"Its slogan, 'The 151 Line,' got started at a time when that accounted for all of the tractors and trailers that they owned," Mr. Harper said.

By the time Mr. Blades retired, the company's net worth was more than $100 million, according to Mr. Harper.

"The company gave its employees health and welfare benefits and set up a profit-sharing plan long before other firms in its field," said a 1977 article in The Evening Sun.

Mr. Blades, a teetotaling Methodist, oversaw the entire operation from his headquarters in Preston. He combined the Golden Rule with hard work, and expected the same from his employees.

"He was hard-driving and always at his desk. He'd stop by the desks of his employees for a chat. He talked to his mechanics and drivers and visited all of the company's some 80 terminals around the country," Mr. Harper said.

"He was a very honest and religious man who treated everyone the way he expected to be treated. Every morning at 10, he'd hold a prayer meeting in his office for those who wanted to attend," said W. David Gaulden, a retired Preston Trucking Co. vice president from Easton.

"He was a keen businessman who never played tricks on you. He always paid cash for everything he purchased. There were no bank loans," Mr. Gaulden said. "I purchased all equipment - trucks, trailers and cars - and the only thing he said to me was, 'Don't ever let me find out that someone got a better deal.' He loved to negotiate."

In 1993, Preston was purchased by Yellow Corp., a Kansas trucking company that sold it a year later to David Letke, Sean Callahan and Nick Marino. In 1999, the company - then the nation's 21st-largest - filed for bankruptcy and ceased operation.

In his leisure, Mr. Blades retreated to his historic, 350-acre Rolling Acres Farm overlooking the Choptank River - once a stop on the Underground Railroad that was operated by the parents of emancipator and freed slave Harriet Tubman. Mr. Blades made his property available to historians, authors and others interested in its history.

He also indulged his passion for horseback riding - which was the way he inspected his fields that were managed by tenant farmers.

In 1931, he married Mary Harper, who died in 1993.

He and his wife established the A.T. and Mary H. Blades Foundation, which supports many nonprofit groups, religious organizations, hospitals and Scouting organizations across Maryland, and provides scholarships for needy students.

Mr. Blades held many directorships, including posts at Mercantile-Safe Deposit and Trust Co., Easton Memorial Hospital and the Delmarva Advisory Commission.

He was a former Sunday school teacher and member for more than 70 years of Bethesda United Methodist Church, on Preston's Main Street, where services will be held at 1 p.m. Saturday.

He is survived by many nephews and nieces.