Perhaps best known to geeks as the man who said that the Internet is “a series of tubes,” former Alaskan Senator Ted Stevens died in a plane crash Monday, according to NPR news reports. Stevens was 86.

As head of the Senate Commerce Committee, Stevens introduced the “series of tubes” description as he was explaining the need for net neutrality:

[T]he Internet is not something that you just dump something on. It’s not a big truck. It’s a series of tubes. And if you don’t understand, those tubes can be filled and if they are filled, when you put your message in, it gets in line and it’s going to be delayed by anyone that puts into that tube enormous amounts of material, enormous amounts of material.

Stevens’ comments became the object of wide parody and humor, as seen in this video from The Daily Show:

Despite his flawed understanding of the Internet, Stevens’ political accomplishments were many. The longest-serving Senator in U.S. history, Stevens was in office from his appointment in 1968 until his 2008 defeat by Democrat Mark Begich.

As Chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, Stevens made his home state the “largest per capita recipient of federal dollars,” according to NPR.

He was famously known for funding the “Bridge to Nowhere,” which would connect mainland Alaska to an off-shore island where only 50 people live–all at a cost of $450 million.

The plane Stevens was on was traveling to a fishing lodge in Bristol Bay, about 300 miles southwest of Anchorage. Four others on the nine-person flight were also killed. Low visibility is believed to have played a part in the crash.