R.I.P.: Former US Senator, Broadcaster Bill Armstrong

Bill Armstrong

Former U.S. Sen. Bill Armstrong, a pillar of Colorado’s Republican Party and a force behind the conservative economic policies of President Ronald Reagan, lost his battle with cancer Tuesday.

He was 79, according to The Denver Post.

Armstrong, a champion of limited government and a devout Christian, was hailed by members of both parties Wednesday for his long service to Colorado and the country.

He had served as president of Colorado Christian University in Lakewood since 2006. Last week Republican leaders at a summit in Denver honored him as a visionary in fostering the party’s economic and moral values.

He helped shape Reagan’s legacy during his 12 years in the U.S. Senate in the 1980s, said Dick Wadhams, the former state Republican party chairman.

Armstrong was born in Fremont, Neb., on March 16, 1937. He attended high school in Lincoln, Neb., and later went to Tulane University in New Orleans and the University of Minnesota.

“I didn’t manage to earn a degree, although subsequently I received a number of honorary doctorates,” Armstrong, who was also a lieutenant in the Army National Guard, said in a 2012 e-mail to The Associated Press.

He started working in radio at a young age, at stations in his hometown and elsewhere in Nebraska. At 22, Armstrong bought a radio station on the outskirts of Denver, KOSI-AM, beginning a career that turned him into a millionaire.