ST. LOUIS (KTRS) William H.T. “Bucky” Bush, brother and uncle to presidents, has died. He was 79. A longtime St. Louis civic leader, Bush co-founded Bush O’Donnell Investment Advisers in St. Louis and was Missouri chairman of his nephew George W. Bush’s reelection campaign in 2004. He was former president George H-W Bush’s youngest brother.

Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush confirmed Thursday in an email to The Associated Press that his uncle died Wednesday. He did not describe the cause.

Chairman Todd Graves of the Missouri Republican Party offered his condolences to the Bush family, tweeting that “Bucky Bush was a strong leader and champion for the state of Missouri.”

Before he started Bush O’Donnell, he was president of Boatmen’s National Bank of St. Louis. He also served on the boards of numerous corporations and foundations, including WellPoint Inc., now Anthem, the parent company of multiple Blue Cross and Blue Shield health insurers.

Bush also was put in the spotlight in 2007, when he and other directors of a defense contractor reaped a total of $6 million from what federal regulators called an illegal scheme by two executives to manipulate the timing of stock option grants.

Bush was a non-executive director of St. Louis-based Engineered Support Systems Inc., whose profits were bolstered because of the Iraq war. He was not accused of any personal wrongdoing in a lawsuit filed by the Securities and Exchange Commission, but the agency said he made about $450,000 selling some of his stock in 2005. Bush offered no comment to the AP at the time.