Representative Maurice D. Hinchey on Capitol Hill in 2009. He retired from Congress in 2013.
Credit J. Scott Applewhite/Associated Press

Maurice D. Hinchey, a former United States representative from New York who championed the environment and blue-collar workers in a political career of nearly four decades, died on Wednesday at his home in Saugerties, in the Hudson Valley. He was 79.

The cause was frontotemporal degeneration, a rare terminal neurological disorder, his family said.

Mr. Hinchey, a Democrat who retired from Congress in 2013 after 10 terms, began his political career as a state assemblyman in 1975. Within four years he became the chairman of the Assembly’s Environmental Conservation Committee. He served in the Assembly until 1992, when he was elected to Congress.

During his time on the state conservation committee, Mr. Hinchey led an investigation into Love Canal, an unfinished waterway in upstate New York that became one of the nation’s first major toxic dump sites. The revelations that emerged would force hundreds of families to evacuate and elevate concerns over toxic waste to national attention.

As a state lawmaker, Mr. Hinchey also aided in the preservation and cleanup of the Hudson River and helped pass the first law in the country aimed at controlling acid rain. He also spent 10 years leading an investigation into organized crime’s control of the waste-hauling industry.

Mr. Hinchey speaking at a rally against hydraulic fracturing, known as fracking, in Albany in 2013.
Credit Tim Roske/Associated Press

During his two decades in Congress, Mr. Hinchey served a district that spanned eight counties, from the Hudson Valley to the Finger Lakes region, and included both troubled industrial cities and tourist resorts. To serve his diverse constituents, he pursued an agenda that made the environment a priority and positioned him as an advocate for economic development.

He became a fierce critic of hydraulic fracturing, known as fracking, and an equally strong proponent of renewable energy — a sector that he saw as critical to the economy and that he hoped could build a hub in upstate New York.

Although he had an unassuming demeanor and kept a relatively low profile, Mr. Hinchey came to be known as a reliable Democratic vote and wielded influence with a seat on the powerful Appropriations Committee, where he routinely inserted money for his district and state into federal spending bills.

Maurice Dunlea Hinchey was born on Oct. 27, 1938, in New York City to Maurice and Rose Hinchey. He moved to Saugerties with his family as a boy. After graduating from Saugerties High School in 1956, he enlisted in the Navy, serving from 1956-59. He later worked as a laborer at a Hudson Valley cement plant for two years.

A biography provided by his family said that Mr. Hinchey put himself through the State University of New York at New Paltz working as a night-shift toll collector on the New York State Thruway. He graduated in 1968.

Mr. Hinchey, right, with Duke Devlin, a participant in the 1969 Woodstock festival, in 2004.
Credit Bill Wingell for The New York Times

He also earned a master’s degree at the university in 1970 and did advanced graduate work in public administration and economics at the State University of New York at Albany.

Mr. Hinchey is survived by his wife, Ilene Marder Hinchey; his children, Michelle, Joseph and Reese Hinchey; his sister, Patricia; his brothers, Michael and John; and four grandchildren.

Senator Chuck Schumer of New York, the Democratic leader, said in a statement on Wednesday that he had known Mr. Hinchey since the two served together in the State Assembly in the 1970s.

“‘Mighty Moe,’ as I used to call him, was a man of great conviction, principle, endless energy and rare legislative ability,” Mr. Schumer said, adding that Mr. Hinchey had been “passionately committed” to the preserving the “priceless open and wild spaces” of the Hudson Valley and Southern Tier.

Speaking in 2000 to The Times Herald-Record of Middletown, N.Y., about his career in public service, Mr. Hinchey said, “I know that I’m a better fighter than most people, and I’m happy to employ those skills on their behalf.”