More than 700 people gathered to pay their respects to Howard Henry Baker Jr. at the late senator’s namesake Center for Public Policy on Monday.

The 88-year-old former house majority leader, UT alumnus and donor died in his hometown of Huntsville June 26.

Baker was Tennessee’s first popularly elected Republican senator, serving in the Senate from 1967 to 1985 and well-known for serving as vice chairman of the Senate Watergate Committee that investigated President Nixon. Baker famously asked the question “What did the president know and when did he know it?”, during the hearings.

The UT Law School alumnus and the school’s first recipient of an honorary doctorate is best known at his Alma mater for the creation of the Howard H. Baker Jr. Center for Public Policy, which hosts lectures, classes, discussions and other events concerning public policy in 2002.

“The Baker Center stands as a living legacy to a member of the greatest generation,” Matt Murray, director of the Baker Center, said in a statement. “Senator Howard Baker will always represent what is good about those who serve our country unselfishly. We are honored to carry on his work to create a more civil engagement in our government.”

Baker enjoyed seeing what students got out of programming at the center, Nissa Dahlin-Brown, assistant director of the Baker Center, said.

“We could always come talk to him about planning for the semester coming up,” Dahlin-Brown said. “If we had something we wanted to focus on we could always call him and ask him for suggestions. He would reach out to the people he knew, and because he was so well-respected, people would come and talk.”

Dahlin-Brown said Baker always examined both sides of an issue, exemplifying values the Baker Center aims to instill in students.

“He was known for integrity,” she said.

After retiring from the Senate in 1985, Baker served as President Ronald Reagan’s chief of staff from 1987 to 1988 and practiced law before being appointed ambassador to Japan by George W. Bush in 2001.

Baker was also a candidate for the Republican presidential nomination in 1980.

Among those he knew, Baker is remembered with reverence.

“Howard Baker was Tennessee’s favorite son, one of America’s finest leaders and for Honey and me an indispensable friend,” Sen. Lamar Alexander said in a statement. “He built our state’s two-party political system and inspired three generations to try to build a better state and country. It is difficult to express how much we honor his life and how much we will miss him.”

In an email to the university June 26, Chancellor Jimmy Cheek said Baker was an alumnus and friend of UT who embodied the Volunteer spirit.

“He will be greatly missed,” Cheek said.

Timeline courtesy of Samantha Smoak