WASHINGTON (CNN) — Former Indiana Republican Sen. Richard Lugar died at age 87 early Sunday morning, the Lugar Center in Washington announced.
“His loving wife Char, his four sons Mark, Bob, John, and David and their families were with him throughout his short illness in the hospital,” the center’s announcement read.
Lugar was a longtime Republican senator representing Indiana from 1977 to 2013. Hewas unseated in a 2012 primary and went on to helm the Lugar Center, whose work focuses in part on nonproliferation.
He started his political career and gained national popularity as the mayor of Indianapolis from 1968-1976.