Leonard Firestone, Tire Magnate, Philanthropist

SAN FRANCISCO - Leonard K. Firestone, the tire magnate and philanthropist who was a confidant of several U.S. presidents, died yesterday at his home in Pebble Beach, Calif. He was 89.

A family spokesman said Mr. Firestone died from complications of respiratory failure.

The last surviving child of Harvey S. Firestone, who founded the tire company that bears his name, Mr. Firestone was named U.S. ambassador to Belgium in 1974 by President Nixon, to whom the industrialist was a close adviser and financial supporter.

Mr. Firestone, who served in the Navy in World War II, first attracted national political notice in the 1960s as a member of California Gov. Ronald Reagan's original "kitchen cabinet" of close friends and advisers.

Mr. Firestone was a major benefactor of national efforts to curb alcohol abuse. He was a director of the National Council of Alcoholism and the Eisenhower Medical Center in Rancho Mirage, Calif.