OLYMPIA – Former state Sen. Bob Oke, a senior Republican known for battling the tobacco industry and promoting a new Tacoma Narrows Bridge, has died after a public battle with a rare form of cancer.
Colleagues at the Capitol praised his peaceful, upbeat demeanor in the chaotic world of politics, and hailed his work on a variety of issues during his legislative tenure that followed a long Navy career.
Oke, a 16-year veteran of the Senate, died Monday night at the Veterans Administration Hospital in Seattle after a three-year battle against multiple myeloma, which targets plasma cells and weakens the bones, the Senate Republican caucus said.
He was 66.
Oke died just weeks before the scheduled July opening of the new bridge linking Tacoma and the Kitsap Peninsula he represented. Oke championed the bridge even though the $800 million toll project was controversial in his 26th District and nearly cost him re-election.
State Transportation Secretary Doug MacDonald was on his way to the hospital Tuesday with a symbolic bridge-opening ribbon for Oke to cut before his impending death. The family said he learned of Oke’s death shortly before he got to the hospital.
Oke, a Port Orchard conservative, was a favorite with lawmakers on both sides of the political aisle before retiring in January, and had been open about his struggles with the disease.
He underwent stem-cell transplants twice, as well as chemotherapy and radiation therapy that kept the disease at bay for part of his final four-year term. He kept his fellow legislators abreast of his illness and various treatments.
The Senate gave him tributes in both 2005 and 2006, with many of his colleagues openly crying.
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