John Dingell Jr., U.S. statesman: 1926-2019

Dingell was the son of Congressman John Dingell Sr., seen in 1938, who had Americanized the family name of Dzieglewicz. Dingell Sr. represented the newly formed 15th District in western Detroit from 1933 to 1955.

After serving as an Army lieutenant in World war II, John Jr. earned a law degree. In 1952, he married Helen Henebry, whom he met when he worked summers as a National Park Ranger in Colorado.

In 1953, John Dingell Jr., center, and William J. Coughlin, left, take the oath of office from Gerald O'Brien. Dingell would serve as an assistant prosecuting attorney for Wayne County until 1955.

In 1955, John Sr. died and John Jr. won a special election to succeed him in the U.S. House. Above, Dingell is sworn in as a Congressman in 1956.

The young Congressman, seen in 1956, would become a champion of environmental and energy laws, the auto industry and national health insurance legislation. The latter was a dream of his father, one that would finally come true in 2010.

New U.S. Rep. John Dingell Jr. alks with Sen. Theodore Green of Rhode Island in 1957.

John and Helen Dingell, seen in 1961, would have four children. They divorced in 1973.

Dingell kept a personal and professional photo archive in his office, including this photo of President Lyndon Johnson handing him a pen after signing a bill.

Dingell, right, chats with Rep. Toby Moffett, D-Conn., during a 1979 meeting of the House Interstate and Foreign Commerce Committee to mark up standby gasoline rationing legislation. Dingell was acting as House manager of President Carter's rationing proposal while Moffett was leading a group trying to block decontrol of oil prices.

Rep. John Dingell Jr. poses with his wife to be, Deborah A. Insley, in his office on Capitol Hill on March 6, 1981. "It was a good match," longtime friend and former Michigan attorney general Frank Kelley said of Dingell's second marriage. "She was his moral compass. People in public life need a very strong spouse."

United Auto Workers president Douglas Fraser, right, shakes hands with Rep. John Dingell, chairman of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce, prior to a hearing Jan. 24, 1983 on the loss of health benefits due to unemployment.

John Dingell and actress Brooke Shields are seen in an undated photo.

Dingell, seen in 1985, was an avid hunter, and became a leading advocate of laws to protect the environment, including the creation of North America's first international wildlife refuge along the Detroit River.

Dingell shakes hands with President George H.W. Bush, circa 1990. While they were on opposite sides of the political aisle, Dingell and Bush were friends.

In the 1990s, Detroit the John D. Dingell VA Medical Center opened in Detroit, now offering services to nearly 350,000 veterans in Michigan.

Seen in 2003 in Trenton, Dingell sponsored a bill to establish an international wildlife refuge along the lower Detroit River. Dingell also was instrumental in preserving Humbug Marsh near Gibraltar as the centerpiece of the wildlife refuge.

The Detroit International Wildlife Refuge includes the lower Detroit River and western shoreline of Lake Erie in Wayne and Monroe counties.

Dingell and his wife Debbie wave to paradegoers during the 84th Annual Memorial Day Parade, May 26, 2008 in downtown Dearborn.

At the 2008 Democratic Convention in Denver, Dingell speaks at a breakfast meeting and rally for the Michigan delegates, before they return home to get out the vote for presidential candidate Barack Obama.

Dingell chaired the House Energy & Commerce Committee for many years. Major laws he shepherded included the National Wilderness Act in 1964, the Water Quality Act in 1965, the Endangered Species Act in 1973, the Safe Drinking Water Act in 1974, and the Clean Air Act in 1990.

Dingell talks with Rev. Jesse Jackson, president of the Rainbow/PUSH Coalition, at the 10th annual fundraising banquet for the Council on American Islamic Relations Michigan chapter at the Hyatt Regency in Dearborn on March 28, 2010.

Vice President Joe Biden and President Barack Obama shake hands with Dingell before Obama signs the Affordable Health Care for America Act during a ceremony in the White House March 23, 2010. Dingell had introduced national health insurance legislation for more than 50 years before he finally saw it become law.

Dingell shares a laugh with Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm and UAW official Chuck Hall during an announcement an concerning electric vehicles at the Ford Rawsonville Plant in Ypsilanti on May 24, 2010.

In 2009, Dingell was instrumental in getting a new national park designation for Michigan, the River Raisin National Battlefield Park in Monroe.

Monroe named a bridge over North Dixie Highway the John D. Dingell Bridge. Dingell represented Monroe for some 30 years, until redrawn political boundaries put it outside of his district in 2003.

Among other attractions named for Dingell are the John D. Dingell Park in Ecorse, along the Detroit River. It sprang from a 1999 Downriver Summit Dingell convened to discuss linking communities and parks of the Downriver area through environmentally smart trails for bikers, hikers and outdoor lovers.

John and Debbie Dingell attend the North American International Auto Show Charity Preview in 2012.

Dingell talks to The Detroit News in his office in the Rayburn Building in Washington D.C. in 2013. On June 7 of that year he became the longest serving congressman in U.S. history.

By 2013, another redrawing of political boundaries had Dingell in the 12th District, representing Detroit's western suburbs and areas west to Ann Arbor.

Dingell speaks during an event marking the third anniversary of the passage of the Affordable Care Act at the U.S. Capitol on March 20, 2013 in Washington, DC. Early the following year, at age 87, he would announce his retirement.

President Barack Obama awards Rep. John Dingell Jr. the Presidential Medal of Honor at the White House on November 24, 2014. It is the nation’s highest civilian honor, presented to individuals who have made especially meritorious contributions to the security or national interests of the United States. Obama described Dingell as “one of the most influential legislators of all time.”

A Chicago bound train arrives after the dedication of the John Dingell Transit Center in Dearborn, December 15, 2014.

Dingell spent some of his final years in Congress bemoaning the lack of cooperation and compromise that often brought the passage of legislation to a grinding halt. "I've never seen such small-minded, miserable behavior in this House of Representatives and such a disregard of our responsibilities to the people," he said.

Former Michigan Rep. John Dingell holds up the gavel he used 50 years ago when Medicare legislation was passed, as he speaks at an event marking the 50th anniversary of Medicare and Medicaid, July 29, 2015, on Capitol Hill.

Retired U.S. Rep. John Dingell speaks at the City of Warren's celebration of the 70th anniversary of the end of WWII at Warren City Hall, May 8, 2015.

On Sept. 25, 2018, John Dingell was released from Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit a little more than one week after suffering what his family described as a heart attack. "I'm breaking out of this place," the 92-year-old Dearborn Democrat announced on Twitter, where he had more than 252,000 followers.