Lowell Weicker, former Republican governor of Connecticut, dies

June 28 (UPI) -- Former Connecticut Gov. Lowell Weicker died at age 92, his family confirmed Thursday.

Weicker also represented Connecticut in the Senate and was the state's last Republican governor.

He retired from politics in January 1995, after serving as the state's 85th governor.

Weicker moved to Greenwich., Conn., in 1958 after obtaining his law degree from the University of Virginia School of Law. He had attended Yale before that.

By 1963 he'd left private practice and secured the Republican nomination for first selectman, the town's top elected official. He then beat Democrat Lawrence Maloney in the general election.

Weicker died in Middlesex Hospital in Middletown, Conn. His family did not give a cause of death.

During his time in the Senate, Weicker helped co-author the Americans with Disabilities Act.

He also ignited massive protests at the state Capitol in Hartford when as governor he managed to introduce a tax on wages.

As a first-term Senator, Weicker was the first Republican on a panel conducting televised hearings into the Watergate scandal to call for the resignation of former president Richard Nixon.

Well into his retirement in 2005, Weicker admitted during an interview he would consider one final political campaign but only under the right circumstances.

Weicker said he would stand as an anti-war candidate against then Sen. Joe Lieberman, D-Conn., but only if no other suitable candidate was found.