Jay Rockefeller, the oil fortune heir who adopted West Virginia as his home and went on to serve as its governor and as a five-term U.S. senator, has died at his home in Washington. He was 89.

His family did not give a cause of death. He is remembered as a towering figure who chose public service in one of the poorest states in the nation over a quiet life of wealth.

From VISTA volunteer to statehouse

Born in New York in 1937 as the great-grandson of John D. Rockefeller, he arrived in West Virginia in the mid-1960s as an anti-poverty volunteer in a small coal community. The experience changed the course of his life.

He won a seat in the state legislature before he turned 30 and later served as secretary of state. After losing his first race for governor in 1972 he ran a college for a few years then captured the governorship in 1976 and won a second term four years later.

Three decades in the Senate

Voters sent him to the Senate in 1984. He held the seat for 30 years before retiring in 2015 and he led the panels on intelligence, commerce and veterans affairs at different points along the way.

Health care was the cause he returned to again and again. He helped write the 1997 law that created the Children's Health Insurance Program which covers millions of kids from working families. He also pushed to protect health benefits for retired coal miners and championed the 2010 health care overhaul.

A voice on Iraq intelligence

As chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee he released a 2008 report finding that prewar claims about Iraq overstated what the evidence showed. He said he regretted his own 2002 vote to authorize the war.

He was the last member of the famous family's political dynasty to hold office and its only Democrat. He is survived by his wife Sharon Percy Rockefeller and their four children.