Former NY Mayor Ed Koch

Former New York Mayor Ed Koch died Friday, Feb. 1, 2013, of congestive heart failure. He was 88.

As mayor from 1978 to 1989, the forceful, quick-witted Koch, with his trademark phrase "How'm I Doin?," was a natural showman and tireless promoter of both himself and the city. He could also be a deeply polarizing figure.

Koch died of congestive heart failure at about 2 a.m. (0700 GMT) at New York-Presbyterian hospital following a year of repeated hospitalizations, George Arzt, his spokesman, said.

Read the full story here at Reuters.com:

From Wikipedia: Ed Koch's final resting place is at Trinity Church Cemetery in upper Manhattan. His tombstone is inscribed with the words "My father is Jewish, my mother is Jewish, I am Jewish." the last words of Daniel Pearl before his murder, followed by a Jewish prayer and the epitaph he wrote himself- "He was fiercely proud of his Jewish faith. He fiercely defended the City of New York, and he fiercely loved its people. Above all, he loved his country, the United States of America, in whose armed forces he served in World War II."^[49]