KENNEBUNKPORT (AP) – Kingsbury Browne Jr., an attorney and influential conservationist who spearheaded the founding of the Land Trust Alliance, died Friday from pneumonia at a nursing home. He was 82.

Browne was regarded as a leader of the American land trust movement and was instrumental in the formation of the Land Trust Exchange in 1982. The exchange eventually became the Land Trust Alliance, a national organization based in Washington, D.C. that represents more than 1,500 land trusts across the United States.

Browne was born in Brookline, Mass., and served in World War II in the Army Air Corps. After the war he became a lawyer and eventually became a nationally recognized expert on land use and conservation.

During a sabbatical from his law firm in 1980, he visited several land trusts around the country and came to recognize the need for national association serving those trusts.

Browne was an avid outdoorsman who made numerous excursions by float plane to Alaska as well as Baffin Island, Hudson Bay and northern Labrador in Canada.

He is survived by his wife, Annette, three daughters, three sons and six grandchildren.

A memorial service was scheduled for Wednesday at St. David’s Episcopal Church in Kennebunk.