William D. Blair Jr., 79; Former President of the Nature Conservancy

William D. Blair Jr., 79, a former reporter and State Department spokesman who was president of the Nature Conservancy, a land preservation organization, from 1980 to 1987, died Saturday at his summer home in Vinalhaven, Maine. He had multiple system atrophy, a neurodegenerative disease.

Blair worked for the State Department from 1959 to 1980, retiring as deputy assistant secretary for public affairs.

With Blair at the helm of the Nature Conservancy, membership, staff and fundraising rose markedly. He raised $300 million in private funds, and the organization started several conservation efforts abroad.

His great-great-grandfather was Francis Preston Blair Sr., a member of President Jackson’s “Kitchen Cabinet,” a group of unofficial advisors, and co-publisher of the former Washington Globe newspaper. The family house became what is now known as Blair House, where visiting dignitaries to the White House stay.

William Draper Blair Jr. was born in Charlotte, N.C., served in the Marine Corps at the end of World War II and graduated from Princeton University in 1949. Hired by the Baltimore Sun later that year, he became a Korean War correspondent and received the Purple Heart after he was shot in the back.