Orrin Hatch, the former seven-term Republican U.S. senator from Utah who died on April 23 at age 88, was one of the finest public servants of my lifetime.

Hatch’s dogged and principled conservatism created a legacy in which his civility was legendary, his legislative triumphs legion. Conservatives thrilled at his hard-fought Senate victory in 1976, which provided that year’s signal solace in the wake of Ronald Reagan losing the Republican nomination for president, and conservatives still celebrated his work 41 years later as he shepherded a major, well-designed tax cut through a partisan Senate. In between, he sponsored more than 750 bills that were enacted into law, not to mention thousands of amendments to other bills.