Hawaii Democratic Sen. Daniel Inouye has died at age 88, his office confirmed Monday night.
His last word, according to a statement released by his staff, was “Aloha”.
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Inouye has been hospitalized since early December due to respiratory problems. His cause of death was “respiratory complications”.
Inouye had served in the Senate since 1962 and represented Hawaii since 1954. He served as the Senate pro tempore — the designation for the chamber’s longest serving Senator — and the person third in line to the presidency. He also chaired the powerful Senate Appropriations Committee at the time of his death.
As the Post’s Jason Horowitz wrote in a 2010 profile of Inouye:
“More than any other statesman in the history of these volcanic islands — more than Kamehameha the Great, who united them into a kingdom in 1810, or Gov. John Burns, who led the political revolution that established Democratic Party rule here in 1954 — Inouye, 86, has ruled over Hawaii.”
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