Flags Lowered In Colorado To Honor Senator Bob Dole

COLORADO — Gov. Jared Polis ordered flags lowered on all public buildings from sunrise to sunset until Thursday to honor the life and legacy of Senator Bob Dole, who died in his sleep Sunday, his family said. He was 98.

Dole, a decorated World War II veteran and sharp-witted, long-serving U.S. senator from Kansas who was denied the presidency in several attempts, became one of the most influential legislators and party leaders in the Senate.

“Thank you Bob Dole for your public service and inspiring personal experience recovering from almost fatal wounds in WWII and never letting disability hold you back,” Polis said in a statement released Monday morning.

“My condolences to Elizabeth Dole and the friends and family of Senator Dole. May his legacy live on and continue to inspire the next generation of public servants."

• Bob Dole, Decorated World War II Vet And GOP Stalwart, Dies At 98

Grievous injuries sustained at the tail end of World War II left Dole unable to fully use his right arm, giving him a perspective he leveraged in what he considered to be a crowning legislative achievement, the Americans with Disabilities Act. It was the centerpiece of his first speech from the Senate floor in 1969, and he worked tirelessly over two decades with the bill's chief sponsor, former Iowa Democratic Sen. Tom Harkin, to see it become law in 1990.

"Experiencing a disability yourself, you could almost walk around with a blindfold and pick out the other people with disabilities," Dole said the day the law was signed. "Having a disability changes your whole life, not just your attitude."

Though Dole never made it to the White House, he served powerfully as the Republican Party leader in the Senate from 1969 to 1996, when he retired. Genuinely funny and known for an acerbic wit and deadpan delivery in the stereotypically stuffy halls of the Senate, he was a political moderate by today's standards, reaching across the aisle to secure passage of legislation that helped everyday Americans.