James C. Davis III, 83, who spent more than 30 years at The Washington Post and retired in 1983 as the No. 2 official in the circulation department, died March 28 at Inova Fairfax Hospital. He had pneumonia.

The death was confirmed by his stepdaughter Jill Falb.

At The Post, Mr. Davis rose through the delivery and circulation department and was named circulation administrative director in 1981.

He ran, at times, the “suburban and country” circulation that included Howard, Anne Arundel, Frederick, Loudoun and Prince William countries. The administrative part of his title referred to negotiating agent contracts and running night operations, among other duties.

Donald E. Graham, board chairman of The Washington Post Co., called him “a thoroughly well-rounded and very smart circulation manager. He could have run any aspect of any newspaper’s circulation department.”

James Cox Davis III was born in Des Moines and raised in Cleveland and Arlington, where he was a 1946 graduate of Washington-Lee High School. He was a 1950 history graduate of Oberlin College in Ohio and was an Army veteran of the Korean War.