“His beloved wife of 61 years, Lynne, his daughters Liz and Mary, and other family members were with him as he passed,” the statement said. “Dick Cheney was a great and good man who taught his children and grandchildren to love our country, and to live lives of courage, honor, love, kindness, and fly fishing.”

The family added, “We are grateful beyond measure for all Dick Cheney did for our country. And we are blessed beyond measure to have loved and been loved by this noble giant of a man.”

Dick Cheney served as Vice President under President George W. Bush from 2001 until 2009. He was widely recognized as the primary architect of the “war on terror” that followed the September 11, 2001 attacks.

Before his vice presidency, Cheney was the 17th United States Secretary of Defense from 1989 to 1993 during the administration of President George H.W. Bush. Earlier in his career, he represented Wyoming’s at-large district in the U.S. House of Representatives.

Additionally, Cheney held the position of Chief of Staff to President Gerald Ford from 1975 to 1977.

He is survived by his wife Lynne, daughters Mary and Liz, and his grandchildren.

Reflecting on his tenure in late 2008, Cheney expressed no regrets about his decisions as Vice President.

“I think, given the circumstances we’ve had to deal with, we’ve done pretty well,” he said.

Despite the absence of discovered weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, Cheney maintained that Saddam Hussein possessed the capability to develop and deploy such weapons.

“He had the technology, he had the people,” Cheney stated. “This was a bad actor, and the country’s better off, the world’s better off with Saddam gone. We made the right decision.”