PORTSMOUTH — School Committee member Douglas L. Wilkey, 73, a Navy retiree who devoted many hours of volunteer service to the town, died Sunday in Newport Hospital after a battle with cancer.

He remained active until a few months ago, when illness forced him to curtail his schedule.

In the last couple of years, Wilkey and School Committee Chairwoman Sylvia Wedge worked together to lobby state officials to prioritize traffic calming measures on the busy streets near Portsmouth High, centrally located off East Main Road and Turnpike Avenue.

The reduction of Turnpike Avenue to two lanes from four last year was due in part to pressure on the Department of Transportation from town officials, with Wilkey and Wedge among the most vocal.

Wedge said yesterday, “He was a friend. We worked well together.”

She said she does not know whether Wilkey’s unexpired term will be filled. He would have been up for reelection in November.

Wilkey was born Dec. 12, 1934, in Fall River. He graduated from Rogers High School in Newport in 1952 and enlisted in the Navy, serving two years aboard an aircraft carrier, the Saratoga, and four years in the reserves, according to his widow, Marjorie Wilkey.

A Republican, Wilkey was first elected to the School Committee nearly 24 years ago, in 1984. He was reelected in 1988 and served another four years.

In 1993, Wilkey stepped down and he and his family moved to North Carolina to be close to a son then serving in the Marines.

Ten years later, Wilkey retired as a senior field representative for Underwriters Laboratories and the Wilkeys moved back to Portsmouth, which they considered home.

The next year, in 2004, Wilkey once again was elected to the School Committee.

His first public post had been as a member of the Planning Board, where he served from 1968 to 1970. He was elected town sergeant in 1970 and 1972.

In 1983, he became the town’s sealer of weights and measures. Wilkey also served for a year as a member of the Glen Committee in the early 1980s and was a former volunteer firefighter for the town.

In addition, he had been active in the USS Saratoga Museum Foundation, which is dedicated to raising money to make the decommissioned Saratoga the centerpiece of a new park at Quonset Point.

gmacris@projo.com