Look, the guy was 85 when he died. He's lived a good long life. My mom is 87 suffering from painful, agonizing terminal cancer and thanks to idiots like Stevens blabbing about death panels and such, there is no funded end of life counseling and no states allow you to end your life when it's time to do so. While perhaps he suffered for a few minutes before dying, I'm certain my mom would gladly trade that for the years of incredible pain and discomfort leading to her slow and lingering death.
Meanwhile, this guy hijacked funds for all sorts of absurd, wasteful programs and did very little good. He fought for our country in WWII (as did most every male his age at that time, including my dad) and supported equality for women in sports, so good for him. But over all, he was not good for the country, and he is not someone to respect. I was very happy he finally left the senate, though there are still too many clueless boneheads there.
So cut out all the empty BS because while all deaths are tragedies of a sort, some are far more than others. This rates very low on the scale. I lost my father to cancer at 69, and I would have been ecstatic for him to make it to 85. And it will be a relief to my mother to finally be at peace. Senator Stevens does not deserve my respect. And his family will be sad, but they don't have to rail at the injustice of it all, because he had a good run -- better than most.