Bob Graham, former U.S. Senator and Governor of Florida, passed away in his 87th year of life

Former U.S. Senator and two-time Florida governor Bob Graham, who gained national prominence as chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee after the 2001 terrorist attacks and as an early critic of the Iraq war, has died. He was 87 years old.

Graham's family announced his death on Tuesday in a statement posted on Site X by his daughter Gwen Graham.

"We are deeply saddened by the passing of a visionary leader, a dedicated servant of the community and more importantly, a loving husband, father, grandfather and great-grandfather", the family said in a statement.

Graham, who served three terms in the Senate, unsuccessfully vied for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2004, emphasizing his opposition to the invasion of Iraq.

But his run was delayed by heart surgery in January 2003, and he was never able to garner enough voter support to make up for it. He did not seek re-election in 2004 and was replaced by Republican Mel Martinez.

Graham was a man of many quirks. He perfected the political ploy of "work days", when he performed various tasks throughout the day, from horse stall cleaner to FBI agent, and kept a meticulous diary, noting almost everyone he interacted with, everything he ate, TV shows he watched, and even his golf scores.

Graham said the notebooks were a work tool for him and he didn't want to describe his emotions or personal experiences in them.

"I look through them for calls that need to be made, notes that need to be dictated, meetings I want to follow up on, and to-do's that people have promised to do", he says.

Graham was an early opponent of the Iraq war, arguing that it diverted America's attention from the fight against terrorism in Afghanistan. He also criticized President George W. Bush Jr. for not having a plan for the occupation of Iraq after the U.S. military ousted Saddam Hussein in 2003.

Graham believes Bush got the U.S. into the war by exaggerating the danger posed by Iraqi weapons of destruction that were never found. He says Bush misrepresented intelligence and claimed it was more serious than the sexual misconduct that led the House of Representatives to impeach President Bill Clinton in the late 1990s. That set him off on his short and unsuccessful presidential campaign.

"The quagmire in Iraq is a distraction created by the Bush administration, and only the Bush administration", Graham said in 2003.

Graham has worked well with colleagues from both parties during his 18 years in Washington, particularly Florida Republican Connie Mack during their dozen years together in the Senate.

As a politician, he was better than few. Florida voters hardly considered him a wealthy Harvard-educated lawyer.

Graham's political career spanned five decades, beginning with his election to the Florida House of Representatives in 1966.

He won a seat in the State Senate in 1970 and was elected governor in 1978. He was re-elected in 1982. Four years later, he won the first of three terms in the U.S. Senate when he ousted incumbent Republican Paul Hawkins.

Graham continued to be very popular with Florida voters, winning reelection in 63 of 67 counties by large margins in 1992 and 1998. In the last election, he defeated Charlie Crist, who subsequently served as Republican governor from 2007 to 2011.

"He blew me away, and I became even more convinced of that during the campaign", Crist said Tuesday night. "I learned to respect him even more than I did before and love him for what a good, decent person he was".

Crist, who has since switched parties and most recently served as U.S. Representative, says Graham had a big influence on him.

"I always felt that when he was governor, he was trying to govern for the people of Florida - in no way politically or partisan - and I took that to heart and tried to emulate him in at least some small way", Crist said.

Even while in Washington, Graham never took his eyes off the state and its leadership in Tallahassee.

When Governor Jeb Bush and the Republican-controlled legislature abolished the Board of Regents in 2001, Graham saw it as an attempt to politicize the state university system. The following year, he led a successful petition drive to amend the state constitution to require the Board of Governors to assume the role of regents.

Daniel Robert Graham was born November 9, 1936, in Coral Gables, where his father, Ernest "Cap" Graham, had moved from South Dakota and established a large dairy farm. As a teenager, young Bob milked cows, built fences and shoveled manure. One of his half-brothers, Philip Graham, was publisher of The Washington Post and Newsweek until he committed suicide in 1963, just a year after Bob Graham graduated from Harvard Law School.

Graham was student body president at Miami High School and attended the University of Florida, graduating in 1959.

He was elected to the Florida legislature in 1966, where he focused primarily on education and health care issues.

Graham started his tenure as Florida's chief of staff with little confidence, and was nicknamed "Governor Jello" for his indecisiveness. He got rid of this label by dealing with several serious crises.

As governor, he also signed numerous death sentences, founded the Save the Manatee Club with artist Jimmy Buffett, and spearheaded the creation of several environmental programs.

Graham ran a bond program to buy beaches and barrier islands threatened by development and launched Save Our Everglades to protect the state's water supply, wetlands and endangered species.

Graham was also known for his 408 "work days", including stints as a housewife, boxing ring announcer, flight attendant and arson investigator. They grew out of teaching as a member of the Florida Senate Education Committee and then turned into a campaign stunt that helped him connect with the average voter.

"That was a very important part of my development as a public official: learning on a very human level what the people of Florida expect, what they want, what their aspirations are, and then trying to interpret that and make policies that will improve their lives", Graham said in 2004, when he finished his last job as a Christmas gift wrapper.

After retiring from public life in 2005, Graham devoted much of his time to working at the public policy center named in his honor at the University of Florida and pushing the legislature to enact additional social studies classes in the state's public schools.

Graham was one of five members of an independent commission selected by President Barack Obama in June 2010 to investigate the massive BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico that jeopardized marine life and beaches in several southeastern Gulf states.