Winton M. Blount

Winton Malcolm "Red" Blount, Jr. (February 1, 1921 – October 24, 2002) was the United States Postmaster General from 1969-1972. He is also known as the founder and former Chief Executive Officer of the large construction company Blount International.

He was the last Postmaster General who led the Post Office as an Executive Department and who held Cabinet-member rank.

Overview

Born in Union Springs, Alabama, Blount served in the United States Army Air Forces during World War II, training as a B-29 pilot. However, the war ended before his training was complete.

Blount and his brother William Houston Blount started a building contractor company Blount Brothers Construction in 1946. Houston left this company in 1948 leaving Winton to serve as President and Chairman until entering public service in 1969. The company worked on such construction projects as the First Avenue Viaduct in Birmingham, Alabama, the Louisiana Superdome in New Orleans and Cape Canaveral's Complex 39A which launched Apollo 11.

In 1952, Blount was appointed the Alabama Chairman of Citizens for Eisenhower, then in 1960 Southeastern Campaign Chairman for Richard Nixon's unsuccessful Presidential campaign against John F. Kennedy. 1961 saw him elected President of the Alabama Chamber of Commerce, then President of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce in 1968.

In 1964, Blount was appointed by Lyndon B. Johnson to the National Citizens Committee for Community Relations, to advise the White House on the enforcement of the new Civil Rights Act of 1964 even though he had doubts about the new law.

In 1969, Blount was appointed as the United States Postmaster General by Richard M. Nixon, and he supervised the transition in 1971 of the U.S. Post Office Department from a Cabinet level department of the Federal government to a special independent executive agency. Blount was the last Cabinet-level Postmaster General and, he served as the first director of the new U.S. Postal Service. In 1971, Blount's profile was depicted alongside Benjamin Franklin's on the face of a silver proof coin commemorating the inauguration of the new Postal Service. The commemorative coin was offered in a carrier with one stamp bearing a Philadelphia postmark from the old Post Office, and another from Washington DC, placed by the new Postal Service.

In 1972, Blount ran an unsuccessful campaign against John Sparkman as the Republican candidate for the U.S. Senate from Alabama. From May 1972 to November 1972, George W. Bush transferred from the Texas Air National Guard to assist Blount's U.S. Senate campaign as its political director.

In 1973, Blount returned to Blount International, Inc., becoming its president once again in 1974. From 1981-1984 Blount, Inc., built the King Saud University in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

In 1980, Blount served as national chairman of John Connally's unsuccessful primary campaign, with the nomination being won by Ronald Reagan.

Retirement

In 1996, the Greenwich Publishing Group published his autobiography called Doing It My Way, which he had co-written with Richard Blodgett.

In 1999, Blount International, Inc., was sold to Lehman Brothers company for $1.35 billion.

Blount died in Highlands, North Carolina, at the age of 81.

Philanthropy

Blount and his wife Carolyn, were philanthropists and notable patrons of the arts. Together they founded the Blount Cultural Park in Montgomery, Alabama, which is home to the Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts and the Alabama Shakespeare Festival.

Also, an elementary school in the Montgomery County, Alabama, School System, was completed in 2003 and was named the Winton M. Blount Elementary School. Blount Elementary was located on the city's rapidly-growing east side, and it is currently one of the largest elementary schools in the region.

The Blount Undergraduate Initiative, a liberal arts honors program for Blount Scholars, was started at the University of Alabama. The Blount Scholars reside in the Blount Living Learning Center on the campus.

The Winton M. Blount Center for Postal Studies and the Winton M. Blount Research Chair, both at the Smithsonian National Postal Museum, were founded with an endowment from the Blount estate.

Further reading

• Lera, Thomas, ed. The Winton M. Blount Postal History Symposia: Select Papers, 2006—2009. Smithsonian Contributions to History and Technology, no. 55. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Scholarly Press, 2010.

References

• Blount, Winton M. (1996). Doing It My Way. Greenwich Publishing Group. ISBN 0-944641-19-9.
• Blount Undergraduate Initiative, University of Alabama. http://www.as.ua.edu/blount/

External links

• Bio
• Blount info
• Maker of cutting tools finds keys to its renewal - article in The Oregonian about Blount International
• Alabama Shakespeare Festival [1]
• Winton M. Blount at Find A Grave