Wheaton Byers, who moved to North Canaan with his wife, Laura, in 1986 after a career in the State Department and the Central Intelligence Agency, died peacefully at his home on Friday, April 21. He was 91 years old.

Byers was born in 1925 and first came to the Canaan Valley with his family in 1938. He graduated from Pomfret School in 1944 and served in the United States Navy in the Pacific fleet before attending Williams College, graduating in June 1950. He joined the State Department and the C.I.A. that year and served in The Hague, Netherlands; Belgrade, Yugoslavia; Salzburg, Austria; and West Berlin, Germany. He concluded his years of service to the federal government as executive secretary for the President’s Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board during the Nixon and Ford administrations.

After a brief stint as a consultant in the private sector, Byers left Washington, D.C. to settle in North Canaan, where he and Laura built a home on his parents’ property, known as “Bywood.” Byers served on the Board of Directors of Geer Nursing Center and as chairman of the Board of Finance for the Town of Canaan. He was also a founding member of the Canaan Foundation and the Canaan Community Trust, which assists teenagers in getting summer jobs.

Byers fought at every turn to preserve the natural beauty of Canaan, both as a member of its Greenway Committee and its Streetscape Advisory Committee. When the one-acre parcel at the intersection of Routes 7 and 44 was threatened by a proposed fast-food restaurant, he was at the forefront of successful efforts to save the corner lot as a town green.

After Byers’s parents bought a camp on Doolittle Lake in Norfolk in the 1950s, Byers and his brothers, Ted and Ben, and their 10 children, enjoyed many summers there, with Byers serving on the Board of Managers of the Doolittle Club and as the club’s commodore.

Wheaton Bradish Byers is survived by his wife, Laura; their four children, Karen, Douglas, Tony and Lisa; and their spouses and children. A memorial celebration of his life was held on May 19 at the North Canaan Congregational Church. Memorial donations may be sent to the Canaan Foundation, P. O. Box 823, Canaan, Conn. 06018.