John W. Black, Visitor to All Counties, Dies

John Woodland Black, believed to be the first man to have visited every one of the 3,104 counties in the 50 states, died at Hoag Hospital on Sunday of complications following surgery for cancer. He was 65.

Black, a former director of the United States Travel Service and a professor at Western State University College of Law in Fullerton, completed his county-by-county tour of the United States on Nov. 24, when he entered Ozaukee County, Wisconsin. Black had said his quest to visit every county started at his birthplace, Spokane County in Washington.

Black, who had been to every state by 1965, visited his last 1,000 counties during the last five years, his family said.

“Travel has been my love every since I was a kid,” Black said in a November interview with The Times. “ . . . The fun of doing this is not seeing the country, it’s seeing the people. That’s what made it an adventure.”

Black parlayed his love of travel into a long career, starting as an intern with the U.S. State Department and later becoming a foreign service officer in Germany and Haiti. In 1961, he was named deputy director of the United States Travel Service, an arm of the U.S. Commerce Department. In 1965 he was named the service’s director.

While serving with the Commerce Department, Black attended law school at night, establishing a law practice in Orange County in 1968 after leaving Washington. In 1972 he was the Democratic nominee in the race for the 39th Congressional District seat but lost.

Black is survived by his wife, Iryne; four sons, John, James, Ian and Timothy; two daughters, Catherine and Bridget; and a granddaughter, Daphne. Funeral services will be private.