Winton M. Blount, the last postmaster general to serve in the president’s Cabinet, and the first, in 1971, to head the newly reorganized Postal Service, died last Thursday at the age of 81.

“Red” Blount, a successful Alabama businessman, was president of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce when invited by Richard Nixon to head the government’s largest nonmilitary agency. He took the job with the explicit understanding that he would have Nixon’s support in undertaking a massive reorganization of the nation’s mail system, taking it out of the cabinet and partisan politics and setting it up as a government-owned corporation, supporting itself from its revenues.

That change had been proposed in 1967 by Larry O’Brien, postmaster general under Lyndon Johnson, and had been fleshed out in a year-long study by a presidential commission headed by the just-retired head of AT&T, Fred Kappel.

The president’s commitment to reform was quickly tested. Less than two weeks after taking office, Nixon – with Blount at his side – announced that thousands of postmaster and rural carrier vacancies across the nation would NOT be filled by the traditional patronage system, but on the basis of merit, while Congress worked on postal reorganization. Political recommendations, the president announced, would no longer be considered. Republican office-holders – locked out of such appointments during the eight Kennedy-Johnson years – were livid. Despite the uproar, Nixon backed Blount, who proceeded to wage a long, difficult, but ultimately successful, campaign to reorganize the postal system.

O’Brien and Kappel deserve credit for the idea and initial design of the new mail service, but it was Blount’s persistence and persuasiveness that made it possible for legislators of both parties to sign on to a major public agency reform bitterly opposed by interests and individuals who were comfortable with the old system and deeply convinced that patronage was the right way to run that railroad.

Today the Postal Service supports itself from its revenues: Only a tiny appropriation comes from Congress to cover mailing for the blind, military absentee ballots and a few other statutory rate concessions. Party politics plays no part in appointments: the postmaster general is appointed by nine postal governors, no more than five of whom can be from the same political party. A landmark legal battle in the first Bush administration confirmed that the actions of the Board of Governors are not subject to White House review.

“Red” Blount came back from war in 1946, borrowed money to buy four tractors, and with his brother set up what ultimately became one of America’s largest construction contractors, building airports, schools and office buildings throughout the world. He gave three years of his life, and all of his energy, to solving a single, specific public-sector problem. His leadership overcame conventional wisdom and conventional attitudes. Not all corporate leaders do well in government. With enthusiasm, patience, optimism and unrelenting honesty, Red did.

Bill Sullivan of Bangor worked for the Postal Service on the staff of both Lawrence O’Brien and Winton Blount. He was a staff member of the Kappel Commission, and served for six years as a governor of the U.S. Postal Service.