Dexter Scott King, who as one of four children of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. worked closely with — but also frequently fought against — his siblings and the civil rights community over his father’s legacy, died on Monday at his home in Malibu, Calif. He was 62.

The King Center for Nonviolent Social Change in Atlanta said the cause was prostate cancer.

Mr. King was the longtime chairman of the King Center, an institution established by his mother, Coretta Scott King, in 1968 to advance the vision of her husband. He was also the president of the King Estate, which managed licensing of his father’s image and likeness.

Both positions put him at the center of a shifting, byzantine web of alliances and conflicts with his siblings — in particular his brother, Martin Luther King III, and his younger sister, Bernice King — and with his father’s former allies. Lawsuits and public clashes were common as they jostled to shape and control the King legacy.

Mr. King was 7 years old when his father was assassinated in Memphis on April 4, 1968. He and his brother, who was 10, were sitting on the floor at home in Atlanta watching TV when a news bulletin reporting the shooting interrupted their show.

They raced to their parents’ bedroom, where their mother was on the phone getting the same news from one of Dr. King’s associates.