Fletcher L. Byrom, a retired chief executive and chairman of Koppers Inc. who led the company through an aggressive diversification in the 1960s and 1970s and was a prominent activist who reached out beyond the boardroom to help advance minorities and social causes, died Thursday of complications from lung and kidney failure.

Mr. Byrom, who had resided in State College for the last eight years, was 91.

After retiring from Pittsburgh-based Koppers in 1982, Mr. Byrom spent much of his time at his home and ranch in Arizona, where he raised cattle and alfalfa. But he relocated to State College in 2001, said his daughter, Carol Conrad of Potomac, Md., to be close to his alma mater, Penn State University, where he was active in alumni events and was an avid fan of football and women's basketball games.

A native of Lakewood, Ohio, near Cleveland, Mr. Byrom earned a bachelor's in metallurgy from Penn State in 1940. His business career began unexpectedly when, as a college freshman, his father died suddenly. Mr. Byrom started a company selling corsages and arranging laundry services for other students to pay for his tuition as well as his brother's.

After college, he became a civilian employee of the U.S. Department of Navy at the Naval Ordnance Laboratory near Washington, D.C., and after World War II worked in Naval Research overseeing work that led to the development of surface-to-air missiles that eventually replaced anti-aircraft guns.

He joined Koppers in 1947 and held several jobs, including manager of a tar products plant in Follansbee, W.Va., prior to being tapped as the company's youngest president in 1960 at age 42. Five years later he was named chief executive.

"He said if it hadn't been for World War II, he probably would have been a middle manager at U.S. Steel," said Mrs. Conrad. "The war was his chance to run the naval ordnance plant. He said opportunities are given to you and it's up to you to do what you can with them."

At Koppers, which produced chemicals and construction products and was a longtime fixture among the city's Fortune 500 headquarters firms, Mr. Byrom reorganized some business segments and grew sales from $400 million in 1960 to more than $2 billion when he retired. He championed investments in new technologies and initiated an environmental cleanup program at Koppers' plants that led to the company performing environmental remediation for other businesses.

Inside the Koppers Building at Grant Street and Seventh Avenue, Mr. Byrom was known as a witty manager who encouraged change and conversation among all levels of the organization.

"He was fearless. He was not afraid to jump into the fray. He was a consensus builder. ... (He) was out there and didn't hide. He was always available," said Robert O'Gara, a professor of journalism at Point Park University who worked in communications at Koppers for nearly two decades.

Among the management principles that Mr. Byrom ascribed to, Mr. O'Gara said, were to "hang loose, listen for the winds of change, and generate a reasonable number of mistakes."

As a young executive in the 1950s, Mr. Byrom was sent by Koppers to Harvard University's Advanced Management Program where he was exposed to books and writing about how business was linked to societal changes.

That experience, which included reading "Reveille for Radicals" by Chicago community organizer Saul Alinsky, made Mr. Byrom an insatiable reader and contributed to "a lot of intellectual shift" in his thinking, said his daughter.

In the 1960s he partnered with the Urban League of Pittsburgh to help facilitate a dialogue between business executives and African-American community leaders during an era of social unrest.

He was also involved in efforts to promote minority businesses through creation of the Program to Aid Citizen Enterprise (PACE), was a founder of the Negro Education Emergency Drive (NEED) and a founder of the National Alliance of Business, which assisted minority youth.

"At that time, he was pretty much ahead of the curve in going beyond the business borders but for all the right reasons because these things shaped the environment business now has to work in," said Mr. O'Gara.

He promoted his brand of intellectual awareness to Koppers' young executives through a reading program known inside the company as "The Byrom Seminar."

Professionals in their 20s and 30s identified by supervisors as future leaders of the company were assigned books and scholarly readings, including some Mr. Byrom had read at Harvard. Once a month, they convened around a table where Mr. Byrom led the discussions, said Mr. O'Gara, who participated in the program.

"He had a very professorial style and used it as a springboard to talk about things inside and outside the company."

Instead of sitting at a traditional large desk in his own office, Mr. Byrom worked while standing at a table that resembled a draftsman's drawing board.

A copy of John Donne's poem, "No Man Is an Island," needlepointed by hand by Mr. Byrom's wife, hung on the office wall.

"He could not and would not sit still," said Mrs. Conrad. "He was always multi-tasking."

When British-based construction company Beazer PLC launched a hostile takeover of Koppers in the late 1980s after his retirement, Mr. Byrom attempted to organize an alternative bid but could not raise enough capital to best Beazer's bid.

"He was aggressive and more serious than anyone had ever seen him. He worked tirelessly on it because Koppers was in his blood," said Mr. O'Gara.

"It broke his heart," said Mrs. Conrad.

Beazer sold off portions of the company, and the current Koppers Inc., which produces chemicals and wood-treatment products, is still based in the Koppers Building.

Walter Turner, president and chief executive of Koppers, said Mr. Byrom "truly put Koppers' name on the global map."

In addition to his daughter, survivors include his wife, Marie "Peg" McIntyre Byrom; a son, Mike Byrom of Northfield, Mass.; another daughter, Susan Byrom of Norfolk, Va.; six grandchildren and two great-grandchildren. A memorial service will be held at 2 p.m. Sunday at Eisenhower Chapel on Penn State's campus in State College. Memorial contributions may be made to the Salvation Army or Park Forest Day Nursery School, 1833 Park Forest Ave., State College, PA 16803.