Blount, Winton Malcolm, Jr.

Blount, Winton Malcolm, Jr., 1921–, U.S. postmaster general (1969–71), b. Union Springs, Ala. A successful building contractor, he was (1946–68) president and chairman of the board of Blount Brothers Corp. After serving (1968) as president of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Blount became (1969) postmaster general in President Richard M. Nixon's cabinet. He ended the patronage filling of postmaster vacancies and presided over (1971) the shift of the U.S. Post Office from a cabinet department to a nonprofit government-owned corporation, the U.S. Postal Service; Blount became the first chairman of the new corporation In 1972 he ran unsuccessfully as the Republican candidate for the U.S. Senate from Alabama, and in 1973 he returned to head his company, now Blount International, Inc.

Bibliography

See his autobiography (1996).