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Steve Stoddard, a former state senator, lab chemist, community icon, war hero, a Living Treasure and godfather of the Los Alamos Republican Party, died Friday, according to friends.

Friends said Stoddard apparently had been in hospice care and his family was with him at the end.

“Steve Stoddard was a friend, a fellow Kiwanian, a mentor, a veteran, a public servant and indeed a Living Treasure. He will be sorely missed by his immediate family, his Kiwanis family and all of Los Alamos. We’ve lost a great one,” Los Alamos resident Morrie Pongratz said in an email Friday. “We just lost another member of the greatest generation. These unselfish men and women made our land what it is today. How apt that we recall them all this Memorial Day.”

Stoddard became a Living Treasure in 2000.

According to the Living Treasure biography that appeared in the Los Alamos Monitor’s April 2, 2000 edition, Stoddard was awarded the Purple Heart for wounds he received while fighting in the Battle of the Bulge, “but Steve is most proud of the coveted Combat Infantry Badge.”