WASHINGTON: Former US senator Orrin Hatch, who retired in 2019 and is one of the longest-serving senators in US history, died on Saturday at age 88, his foundation announced.
The Orrin G. Hatch Foundation wrote on its website that he “passed away at 5:30 p.m. on Saturday, April 23, 2022 in Salt Lake City, Utah, surrounded by family.”
A conservative Republican from the western state of Utah, Hatch was elected to the US Senate in 1977, his first public office and a position he held for 42 years.
Through his long tenure in the Senate, where seniority is prized, he was able to rise to the chairmanship of several powerful committees, including those overseeing trade, health care, taxes, and the judiciary.
From 2015 until his retirement in 2019, he served as the president pro tempore of the Senate, a largely ceremonial role that usually goes to the most senior member of the majority party, but which by law is third in the line of succession to the US presidency.
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