Jeremiah Milbank Jr., who died Tuesday at 87, advocated on behalf of Americans with disabilities, founding and leading the New York-based Milbank Foundation for Rehabilitation.

The great-grandson of a milk magnate who built the enterprise that would later become the Borden Company, Milbank grew up in Greenwich, Conn., where he lived most of his life. He had recently moved to Charlottesville, Va.

His father was a noted businessman and benefactor who founded the International Center for the Disabled, and the JM Foundation — the latter promoting limited government, free enterprise, and private property ownership.

Milbank, who was known as Jerry, followed in his father’s footsteps in regard to his professional and philanthropic endeavors. He promoted voluntary service, and focused his efforts on improving the lives of underprivileged youth, and the disabled — not on the well being of cultural and artistic institutions.

Recalling an encounter he had with several wealthy opera supporters, Milbank, a private investor, told Greenwich magazine in 1995: “I’m not a cultural illiterate, but it did seem to me that their priorities were a bit skewed. If we don’t heal the young walking wounded in our society, the audiences for the opera may be a bit thin.”

Through the Milbank Foundation, he backed efforts to promote independence and a high quality of life for physically and mentally disabled individuals. “The eventual goal is to determine what our clients are capable of doing best, whether it’s handling a computer or becoming involved in food service,” he said, during a 1991 interview with the Greenwich Time. “Then we train them, get them a job and follow them to make sure it was the right opportunity for them.”

Milbank was also active in numerous charities — serving as president and chairman of the Boys & Girls Clubs of America, as president of the International Center and the JM Foundation, both founded by his father, and as a trustee of the National Council on Disability.

A lifelong Republican, Milbank served as chairman of Republican National Finance Committee, and in the mid-1970s founded the Republican Eagles, comprising highcapacity party donors.

He graduated in 1942 from Yale University, and in 1948 earned an M.B.A. from Harvard University. Between college and graduate school, he served in U.S. Navy during World War II, and was stationed in Pacific theater.

After business school, he joined Milbank & Co., the family’s private investment company in New York.

He went on to receive honorary doctorate degrees from Sacred Heart University, Ithaca College, and Manhattan College, in addition to various other honors and awards, such as President Ronald Regan’s Volunteer Action Award, and the National Society of Fund Raising Executives’ Philanthropist of the Year Award.

Milbank was a trustee of the Hoover Institution and supported the work of many other free-market-oriented think tanks, including the Cato Institute, the Heritage Foundation, and the Manhattan Institute. “Jerry Milbank was a true gentleman — principled, patriotic, committed, moral, and upright — and we admired him tremendously,” the president of the Manhattan Institute, Lawrence Mone, said, noting that Milbank supported the Manhattan Institute’s work on school choice and the Institute’s Empire Center for New York State Policy.

Milbank is survived by his wife, Mary Rockefeller Milbank; two sons, Jeremiah Milbank III and Joseph Hunter Milbank; two daughters, Victoria Milbank Whitney and Elizabeth Milbank Archer, from his 35-year marriage to the late Andrea Hunter Milbank; and 10 grandchildren.