Arlen Specter (February 12, 1930 – October 14, 2012)

HARRISBURG, Pa.(AP) – Former U.S. Sen. Arlen Specter, the outspoken
Pennsylvania centrist whose switch from Republican to Democrat ended
a 30-year career in which he played a pivotal role in several Supreme
Court nominations, died Sunday.

Specter, who announced in late August that he was battling cancer, died
at his home in Philadelphia from complications of non-Hodgkins lymphoma,
said his son Shanin. Over the years, Arlen Specter had fought two previous
bouts with Hodgkin’s disease, overcome a brain tumor and survived cardiac
arrest following bypass surgery.

Specter rose to prominence in the 1960s as an aggressive Philadelphia
prosecutor and as an assistant counsel to the Warren Commission.His
career in the United States Senate ended on January 3, 2011. He was
succeeded by Pat Toomey.

Sen. Specter in 1969