Mark Helmke, a long-time aide to former Sen. Dick Lugar, R-Indianapolis, died Saturday at his home in Angola, Ind.
Helmke was 62 years old and a professor of strategic communications in the Ketner School of Business at Trine University in Angola.
"Mark Helmke was a talented public servant, communicator, teacher, and political observer with whom I was privileged to work for many years," Sen. Lugar said in a statement. "He was very proud of his work, but he took even greater pride in his family, and he shared stories about them everyday."
According to his biography on the Center for International Media Assistance's website, Helmke worked with Lugar for 30 years on many international issues, including his renowned collaboration with Sen. Sam Nunn to dismantle nuclear weapons in former Soviet states.
Helmke also worked in the Philippines during a democratic revolution there, and in South African during debates over apartheid.
Helmke is the brother of Paul Helmke, the former president of the Brady Campaign Against Gun Violence and a current professor at Indiana University's School of Public and Environmental Affairs.
Paul Helmke t old the Indianapolis Star his brother had bronchitis a few days before his death.