CHAPPAQUA, N.Y. (AP) ­- Philip B. Kunhardt Jr., a writer and producer of television documentaries on freedom and the American presidency, has died of complications of pulmonary fibrosis, according to his family-run production company. He was 78.

With two of his sons, Peter and Philip B. III, Kunhardt helped produce documentaries for Kunhardt Productions, the Chappaqua-based family company, including “Freedom,” an eight-hour series broadcast on public television in 2003, and “The American President,” which profiled every U.S. president up until 2000.

Kunhardt worked as an assistant managing editor and managing editor of Life magazine, retiring in 1982. He also wrote several books, including memoirs about his parents and “A New Birth of Freedom” about the Gettysburg Address.

His mother, Dorothy M. Kunhardt, was a historian and children’s book author best known for “Pat the Bunny” in 1940. Together, they wrote two books: “Twenty Days,” about Lincoln’s assassination, and “Mathew Brady and His World.”

Kunhardt Production also owns the Meserve-Kunhardt Collection – Civil War photographs first collected by Kunhardt’s maternal grandfather, Frederick Hill Meserve – which includes rare glass negatives of Abraham Lincoln by Mathew Brady.

Kunhardt, who died at home on Tuesday, is survived by his wife, Katherine, three sons, three daughters and 18 grandchildren. A funeral service was held Friday in Mount Kisco, N.Y.

He also had a home in Hancock, Maine.

AP-ES-03-24-06 1740EST