But he also negotiated a contract that was rejected by the membership in 1981. A 72-day strike followed. The ultimate settlement raised union pay above $100 a day, added dental insurance and extended pension rights to the widows of miners.  Mr. Church’s bid for a full five-year term as president failed in 1982 when he lost to Richard L. Trumka. Mr. Trumka is now secretary-treasurer of the A.F.L.-C.I.O. Mr. Church remained active with the union and returned home to Virginia, where he went back to the mines as an underground electrician.  Born in Matewan, W.Va., on Sept. 20, 1936, Samuel Morgan Church Jr. was one of eight children of Samuel and Helen Cook Church. His father was a coal miner who became a barber after his foot was crushed while working in the mine.  Mr. Church’s first marriage ended in divorce. Besides his wife of 31 years, the former Patti Page, he is survived by his son from his second marriage, Nathaniel; three children from his first marriage, Samuel 3rd, Melissa Lawson and Suzanne Church; two sisters, Barbara and Patricia; his brother Gary; and six grandchildren.  When he was 8, Mr. Church’s family moved to Virginia. Young Sam was a shoeshine boy, then a pinsetter at a bowling alley, for 5 cents a game. That was the start of his union activities.  “There was a head pinsetter who got 7 cents, so the rest of us said we were going on strike if we didn’t get 7 cents, too,” Mr. Church told The New York Times in 1979. “The boss said he’d do it to keep the lanes open, and then the next day he fired us and got in new kids at 5 cents.”  In 1951, Mr. Church took a job at a sugar plant in Baltimore. Fourteen years later, he returned to Virginia and worked for the Clinchfield Coal Company. He rose through union ranks until 1975, when Mr. Miller asked him to join the staff at headquarters.  Mr. Church’s maternal grandfather, Wirt Cook, was the superintendent of a coal mine in West Virginia in the early 1900s.  “I always kidded him,” Patti Church said on Wednesday, “that one chromosome and he would have been the company guy.”  A version of this article appears in print on , on Page B12 of the New York edition with the headline: Sam Church Dies at 72; Led United Mine Workers. Order Reprints| Today's Paper|Subscribe
Mr. Church led the United Mine Workers of America during a tumultuous time when the union was growing more democratic while its numbers were dwindling.