Though he admitted that he had violated federal law, Mr. Kalmbach, in his own defense, testified that he had solicited money for the Watergate burglars and had delivered it to them because he had been told that it was being granted on “humanitarian” grounds — to pay for the men’s legal fees and to support their families — and that it had been authorized by John D. Ehrlichman, the president’s assistant for domestic affairs, and by Mr. Dean.

“The fact that I had been directed to undertake these actions by the No. 2 and No. 3 men on the White House staff,” Mr. Kalmbach said, “made it absolutely incomprehensible to me that my actions in this regard could have been regarded in any way as improper or unethical.”

Herbert Warren Kalmbach was born on Oct. 19, 1921, in Port Huron, Mich. When he was only 14, he contrived an airplane de-icer, which was reproduced in Popular Mechanics magazine. After serving in the Navy, he taught celestial navigation at the United States Naval Academy.

He earned a bachelor’s degree in 1949 and a law degree in 1951 from the University of Southern California and was admitted to the bar in 1952. He became friendly with Nixon later in the 1950s after being introduced by H. R. Haldeman, Nixon’s future chief of staff.

His wife, Barbara Forbush Kalmbach, a former Rose Bowl princess, died in 2005. He is survived by a daughter, Lauren Kinsey, and a son, Kurt. Another son, Kenneth, died in 1980.

After Nixon was elected president in 1968, Mr. Kalmbach rejected an offer to be deputy commerce secretary. Instead, he profited enormously as a real estate lawyer representing corporate clients who hoped to cash in on his personal relationship with the president. Mr. Kalmbach had handled Nixon’s income tax returns and matters involving his home in San Clemente, Calif.

Considered trustworthy and discreet, he was enlisted as deputy finance chairman of the 1972 re-election campaign. But he rapidly became embroiled in illegal fund-raising. After the break-in that June, he was instructed to deliver money to the Watergate defendants through a bagman, Anthony Ulasewicz, a former New York City police detective who had been on the Nixon campaign’s private payroll.