NORTH COUNTY -- Clair W. Burgener, a five-time Congressman whose strong Republican roots and gentlemanly demeanor resonated deeply with his North County constituents, died early Saturday of complications of Alzheimer's.

He was 84.

Burgener, a longtime Fairbanks Ranch resident, died at 2:30 a.m. at Silverado Senior Living in Encinitas, where he had been living for the past few years.

An ally and friend of presidents Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford and Ronald Reagan, Burgener served the staunchly Republican former 43rd Congressional District -- covering parts of San Diego, Imperial and Riverside counties -- from 1972 to 1982.

Before that, he served eight years in the state legislature, where he became a champion of the developmentally disabled.

Longtime friend and former Oceanside City Councilman John Steiger, 86, said Burgener was revered as a politician who could be trusted.

"His ethics were top of the line, almost as if he were a parish priest," said Steiger. "San Diego had a lot of doers and he was in that group."

Steiger said he knew Burgener well enough to call on him for advice when Steiger ran for the Republican nomination for Congress in the 1950s. Burgener had been elected to the San Diego City Council in 1953.

"He chuckled and told me whenever they took my picture for the newspaper, to stand so that I would be identified first, since captions run from left to right," he said. "He was just always available to help."

Steiger returned the favor when Burgener ran for the California State Assembly by generating support for him, and was proud when Burgener was elected in 1962.

Burgener served two terms in the Assembly, then moved to the state Senate for two terms, from 1966 to 1972. He won his first Congressional race in 1972, and was re-elected in 1974, 1976, 1978 and 1980.

The well-respected conservative announced his retirement in 1981.

In December 1982, during a dinner held in his honor in Escondido, Burgener told the crowd: "Thanks for giving me the great opportunity of my life."

He also spoke about the day he was sworn in to Congress.

"I was filled with euphoria, joy and excitement. That was exceeded only by the feeling I felt .. when I bid them adieu," Burgener said, according to a Dec. 21, 1982, article published in the Times-Advocate, a precursor to the North County Times.

"I wouldn't have missed one day of it and I wouldn't have wanted one day more," he said at the time.

Burgener remained active for many years in civic and political affairs, including the California Republican Party and the University of California, for which he served as a regent from 1988 until 1997.

If Burgener was admired for his political success and staying power, he was also known for his generosity of spirit.

"He was a very kind man," said Ken Noonan, superintendent of the Oceanside Unified School District, where a school is named after Burgener.

The Clair Burgener Academy was founded in 1999, and at that time served special-needs students, a group that Burgener championed after his son was born with severe mental retardation.

When Oceanside Unified decided to change the focus of the campus to serve ninth-grade students who did not yet qualify for high school, Noonan called Burgener to talk it over.

"He was very gracious," Noonan said. "He said he thought it was a great thing to do and he was just very positive about the school."

Burgener was born Dec. 5, 1921, in Vernal, Utah and was a navigator for the U.S. Army Air Corps in the Pacific during World War II.

Burgener's oldest son Rod was severely mentally retarded and Burgener made the welfare of the mentally disabled his central aim as a legislator.

In 1963, he pushed a law through the assembly that mandated classroom training for the mentally retarded.

"If I had to single out one single event, to me that would be the most important," Burgener told the San Diego Union in 1981.

Rod Burgener died in a train accident in 1979.

Usually a reliable conservative voter, Burgener broke ranks with his party in the late 1970s to support the Equal Rights Amendment. He also was one of only 29 Republicans to vote against the confirmation of Nelson Rockefeller as President Ford's vice president.

But Burgener was best known for defeating Ku Klux Klan leader Tom Metzger, the Democratic candidate, for election to his final term in Congress in 1980.

The race was never close -- Metzger had little money, few volunteers and virtually no support among Democrats. But it received national media attention and caused many sleepless nights for Burgener, who later expressed worries that he might have somehow lost to the white supremacist.

Burgener won 86 percent of the vote and broke a 40-year-old record for votes received in a House race.

Steiger said that as a politician and a person, Burgener broke the mold.

"He was an outstanding representative and I was proud to know him, " said Steiger. "We're going to miss him."

Burgener is survived by his wife, Marvia, and two sons, Greg and John.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Staff writer Noelle Ibrahim contributed to this report.