MIAMI (AP) -- Dante Fascell spent 38 years in Congress helping to mold the nation's foreign policy and preserving the natural splendors of his home state, ultimately earning the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
Fascell, a Democrat and one of the most important politicians in Florida history, died Saturday of colon cancer at his home in Clearwater. He was 81."He was a tremendous public servant. Someone with incredible integrity," Gov. Lawton Chiles said Sunday.
Fascell, who represented the Miami area, was elected to the first of 19 terms in 1954. He rose to become chairman of the powerful House Foreign Affairs Committee, a post he took over in 1984 and held during the Iran-Contra scandal and the Persian Gulf War. He retired in 1992.
The son of an Italian immigrant, Fascell also made his mark on the home he moved to as a child from Bridgehampton, N.Y. His stamp can be seen throughout southern Florida: the Port of Miami, bridges in the Keys, restored beaches and university buildings -- many of which bear his name.
"He had an uncanny ability to cut through a lot of rhetoric and get to the heart of the issue," said his former press secretary, Barbara Burris van Voorst. "Most people in south Florida would remember his Labor Day picnics."
Fascell had a blood clot removed from his head in 1981. He fought colon cancer in 1994 and had heart bypass surgery in 1996. The cancer returned this year.
He is survived by his wife of 57 years, Jeanne-Marie Fascell; daughters Sandra Diamond and Toni Strother; and three grandchildren.