Lee Hamilton, towering figure in national politics with deep ties to IU, dies at 94

Lee Hamilton, a 17-term congressman serving southern Indiana, whose foreign policy expertise, reverence for democracy, and bipartisan ideals made him a towering and highly respected figure in national politics, died Tuesday night. He was 94.

Hamilton, a Democrat, served as vice chair of the 9/11 commission and chair of the House committee investigating covert arms transactions with Iran.

He had a deep connection to Indiana University, where he graduated from law school in 1956. Hamilton's name is on Indiana University's Lugar Hamilton School of Global and International Studies. He started IU's Center on Representative Government as the Center on Congress. IU is home to Hamilton's congressional papers.

In 2015, president Barack Obama awarded Hamilton the Presidental Medal of Freedom.

At the ceremony, Obama quoted Hamilton as having said, "At its best, representative democracy gives us a system where all of us have a voice in the process and a stake in the product."

Obama added, "In his 34 years in Congress, Lee Hamilton was a faithful servant of that ideal, representing his district, his beloved Indiana, and his country with integrity and honor."

Hamilton represented Indiana's 9th Congressional District from 1965 to 1999.

“Few public servants have shaped our understanding of democracy, global engagement, and principled leadership as profoundly as Lee Hamilton," IU president Pamela Whitten said in a statement Wednesday. "His lifelong commitment to public service reflects the very best of our democratic ideals and left an enduring impact on our nation."

Hamilton continued writing up to only a few days ago, lamenting the current state of national politics in a newspaper column. Last September, he wrote a column under the headline, "Congress is no longer an equal branch."

His most recent column opined that Congress needed more friendships.

"Because no step is more important right now than re-establishing Congress’s ability to assert itself as a robust and effective branch of government that can weigh in on — and even shape — policy both domestic and foreign," Hamilton wrote. "And I’m convinced that unless individual members of Congress can build relationships with one another that transcend both party and the maneuvering for advantage that frequently marks relationships on Capitol Hill, that will be a lost cause."

Hamilton was born April 30, 1931, in Daytona Beach, Fla. He grew up in Evansville and was a basketball star at Central High School, earning all-state honors his senior year. Hamilton received his undergraduate degree from DePauw University, where he also played basketball. Hamilton was inducted into the Indiana Basketball Hall of Fame in 1982.

He started his professional career as a lawyer in private practice in Columbus and got involved with politics, joining the Bartholomew County Young Democrats.

In a 2015 interview with WTIU, Hamilton recalled helping coordinate a visit from presidential hopeful John Kennedy.

"I was called by someone, I don’t remember whom, whosaid 'Would you host an event for Senator John Kennedy from Massachusetts? He’s running for president,'" Hamilton said. "I knew his name, didn’t know much about him. I said I would host him. I called up every friend I had in Bartholomew County and on the very cold, blustery winter day, Senator Kennedy came to Columbus."

Hamilton went on to work for Hoosier political icon Birch Bayh in 1962. Hamilton made his first run for Congress in 1964.

Former vice president and Indiana governor Mike Pence once said someone like Hamilton is vital to Congress finding consensus amid a "great melting pot of ideas."

"The key to doing that is something that’s synonymous with Lee Hamilton and that is the ability to forge genuine relationships with people of different viewpoints," Pence said.

Baron Hill, who succeeded Hamilton in Congress, said Wednesday, “He was honest, he was smart. He had huge integrity. He's exactly the kind of person that we want serving in Congress, and I tried to follow in his footsteps.”

Hamilton met his wife Nancy at DePauw and they married in 1954. She died in 2012. They had three children.

Gov. Mike Braun ordered flags to be flown at half-staff.

This story will be updated.