James Roosevelt, Son of F.D.R., Dies at 83 : Obituary: The Newport Beach Democrat’s career spanned diplomacy, politics, business. His support of Nixon, Reagan stirred party resentment.

James Roosevelt, last surviving child of former President Franklin D. Roosevelt who carved out his own, often controversial, career in politics and business, died Tuesday at his home. He was 83.

A son, H. Delano Roosevelt, said complications from a past stroke and Parkinson’s disease were the cause of death. Roosevelt’s widow, Mary, said he suffered another small stroke Monday, “but it didn’t seem to do much to him. I was with him. He died at dawn.”

Already a young man when his father was first elected President in 1932, Roosevelt worked a range of jobs from laborer to insurance salesman and Hollywood producer before joining the Marines during World War II.

After the war, during which he won the Navy Cross and Silver Star for gallantry during a raid on Makin Atoll in the Pacific, Roosevelt carried on the family tradition and entered the political arena, where he met with mixed success. Of his family name, Roosevelt once wrote: “It was my greatest asset, no doubt of that. But if it was a plus, it was also a minus. I was not my father. . . . I had to be myself.”

Roosevelt became chairman of the California Democratic Party in 1946. He ran unsuccessfully for governor in 1950 against Earl Warren but won a Los Angeles County congressional seat in 1954. While in Congress in 1965 he ran against Los Angeles Mayor Sam Yorty for the mayoral seat but lost.

He gave up the congressional seat to become an ambassador to the United Nations Economic and Social Council, and despite his Democratic heritage became a prominent member of Democrats for Nixon.

“James Roosevelt was an outstanding presidential aide, congressman and diplomat,” Nixon said from his New Jersey home Tuesday. “I was honored to count him among my greatest supporters and most trusted advisers. But the job he did best was also one of the most difficult: being the son of a President. By being loyal to his father’s memory and ideals without being reluctant to exercise his own independent judgment, he immeasurably enriched F.D.R.’s legacy.”

Roosevelt moved to Orange County in 1972 and quickly became active in local politics and a fixture on the society scene. He was a lecturer at both UC Irvine and Chapman College, a business consultant and a member of the Orange County Transportation Commission.

He was remembered by friends and colleagues in Orange County for his support of education, the arts and many charities.

Supervisor Thomas F. Riley met Roosevelt in New Zealand after both had served at Guadalcanal in the Solomon Islands during World War II. Roosevelt was one of the elite “Carlson’s Raiders,” Riley said, who were assigned the most dangerous missions.

“Several times throughout my career our paths crossed,” Riley said Tuesday. “When he moved here our friendship grew even stronger. . . . I always had lots of respect and a lot of love for him. He has always been a great American. . . . He will be sorely missed.”

The second of six children and a native of New York City, Roosevelt grew up immersed in the politics in Albany and Washington. “Of course, my childhood was unusual because I grew up in a politically charged environment,” he once told a reporter. “The experience was invaluable.”

After graduating from Harvard, Roosevelt served as an administrative assistant and then briefly as press secretary to his father in the White House.

He lost the state Democratic Party post after attempting unsuccessfully to persuade Dwight D. Eisenhower to oppose President Harry S. Truman for the 1948 Democratic presidential nomination.

In Truman’s hotel room during a campaign stop in Los Angeles, the President reportedly told Roosevelt: “ . . . If your father knew what you were doing to me, he would turn over in his grave. But get this straight: Whether you like it or not, I am going to be the next President of the United States. That will be all. Good day.”

Throughout his multiple, colorful careers, Roosevelt’s political and business clout came under intense scrutiny.

For example, after making 200 speeches and managing his father’s 1932 presidential campaign in Massachusetts, Roosevelt--then a junior at Harvard--became a key figure in parceling out federal jobs to political supporters and was dubbed “czar of Massachusetts patronage” by Time magazine. Later, he quit as an executive with a New Jersey yeast company after a White House aide discovered that the firm was a front for a bootlegging operation.

While serving as U.S. ambassador to UNESCO, Roosevelt became a vice president and director of Investors Overseas Services, a firm based in Switzerland that collapsed amid fraud charges against some of Roosevelt’s associates, including fugitive Robert L. Vesco and Bernard Cornfeld. The Securities and Exchange Commission dismissed a lawsuit against Roosevelt after he signed a 1973 court order pledging not to violate securities laws. He acknowledged no wrongdoing.

In addition to stirring resentment among Democratic Party loyalists by heading Democrats for Nixon in 1972, he endorsed Republican Ronald Reagan for President in 1984. When he endorsed and campaigned for Jimmy Carter in 1976, Wally Albertson, then president of the California Democratic Council, remarked that “the younger Democrats don’t know Mr. Roosevelt, and the older liberals like myself have a bad impression of him for supporting Nixon.”

In 1983, Roosevelt launched the National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare, a well-funded nonprofit lobbying organization that sought to preserve Social Security benefits put in place by his father in the 1930s.

In March, 1987, Roosevelt traveled to Capitol Hill to defend his 1.8-million member committee against accusations that it used “scare tactics” to solicit millions of dollars by mail from the elderly. “Our cause is a good one,” Roosevelt said, “our methods are honest.”

Roosevelt aided several charities, including the Eleanor Roosevelt Cancer Foundation and the March of Dimes, and was a former executive director of the Chapman Enterprise Institute. He also served on the board of Chapman College in Orange. He continued recently to serve as a trustee emeritus.

James Roosevelt believed that the family legacy centered on social responsibility, Delano Roosevelt told the Associated Press. “To try to stand up to those getting the raw end of the stick--that’s what the message was. Utilize the family’s (fame) to help the poor guy who doesn’t have a voice.”

He once criticized his political detractors by saying: “There are some liberals who won’t recognize one’s right to some independent thought. That’s the opposite of the liberal point of view, which respects the inherent right to freedom of choice.”

Roosevelt cited his work in Congress on behalf of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, particularly a provision mandating fair employment practices, as his proudest legislative achievement.

Roosevelt was renowned for his storytelling. When he auctioned off Roosevelt family memorabilia in 1975, for example, he told this tale about seven bottles of vermouth included in the sale: “When I turned 18, Father called me in, much to my mother’s consternation, and told me I was old enough to join them at the cocktail hour. He asked me how I liked my martinis. I said I liked them two (parts gin) to one (part vermouth). He said he made them one to one and that was all right.

“Then, when my brother Elliott came along, the martinis became three to one. Then, with Franklin Jr., they became four to one, and with John it was five or six to one. Finally, father said, ‘I don’t know why we have any vermouth around here at all!’ And so when the Mexican government presented him with these bottles, he said, ‘But we don’t use it anymore.’ ”

Besides his wife, Mary, Roosevelt is survived by seven children, Sara Willford, Kate Roosevelt Whitney, James Jr., Michael, Anne Johnston, Hall Delano and Rebecca May; and about 20 grandchildren.

Funeral services are scheduled for 4 p.m. Sunday at Newport Center United Methodist Church. A Marine Corps burial will follow at Pacific View Memorial Park in Newport Beach.

In lieu of flowers, Roosevelt requested that donations be made in his name to either the UCI College of Medicine Foundation or the Franklin D. Roosevelt Endowed Chair in Rehabilitative Medicine at UCI College of Medicine.