Howard Blankman, 91, a PR counselor who was a leader in community affairs and an accomplished composer and musician, died March 17 at his home in Port Washington, L.I.

He founded The Blankman Group in 1968 which he sold in 2004. His many clients had included Cablevision, Long Island Railroad and Breslin Realty.

Howard Blankman

Plans for a memorial service are to be announced.

He was a founding member of the PR Professionals of Long Island and received its Lifetime Achievement Award in 1997. An Accredited member of PR Society of America, he was elected to its College of Fellows.

The Long Island Business News in 1995 named him as one of Long Island’s “Top 100 Influentials.”

Blankman was director of PR for the New York State Joint Legislative Committee on Transportation and was press secretary to its chair for the late New York State Senator John Caemmerer, who also chaired the State Committee on Transportation.

His civic participation included service on North Hempstead’s Planning Board and its Housing Authority and serving as chair of the Nassau County Planning Committee and as a member of the County’s Board of Assessors. Governor George Pataki named him to the Long Island Regional Economic Development Council. A past president of the Port Washington Chamber of Commerce, he was known for devoting many hours to fund-raising.

A Musician, Author and Patron of the Arts

Blankman, a musician and composer, wrote the music and book for a musical adaptation of Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson, a work designed for performance by elementary school children.

He was a writer and associate producer of WABC-TV’s “Who Do You Trust” starring Johnny Carson. He served as president of the Great Neck Symphony Society, vice chair of the Nassau Symphony Orchestra, and as a director of the Long Island Philharmonic.

Active throughout his life in the Boy Scouts of America, having achieved the status of Eagle Scout, he was named a “Distinguished Eagle Scout,” an honor held by fewer than 800 at the time.

He was a board member of the Long Island Chapter, Anti-Defamation League.

He attended Franklin & Marshall College and West Chester State Teachers College and during World War II was a member, 514th Airborne Infantry Regiment.

Survivors include the former Donna Farnsworth Smith, his wife of 50 years; children Deborah, Michael, Diana, Matthew and Sarah, and her fiancé, David Trzaska, and three grandchildren, Hannah, Sam and Alexandra.