John Sidney McCain III, a six-term Arizona senator, former POW and the Republican Party’s 2008 presidential nominee, died this afternoon. He was 81.

McCain was often called a “maverick” for his self-deprecating humor, a reputation for speaking his mind and his party-line-bucking statements and votes.

He was known to explode during floor debates and could blow up at colleagues, yet his piercing brown eyes filled with tears during a 2008 Arizona Daily Star editorial board meeting while he discussed a veteran he felt he let down.

“His whole life was public service,” said former U.S. Rep. Jim Kolbe, a Republican who represented the Tucson area in Congress from 1985 to 2007. “He epitomized what it means to be a good public servant.”

McCain spoke to what was important, Kolbe said.

McCain survived 5½ years in filthy, brutal prisoner-of-war camps in Vietnam and had been treated for four melanomas since December 1993. He was diagnosed with glioblastoma, an aggressive brain cancer, after surgery July 14, 2017, in Phoenix to remove a blood clot above his left eye.

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