Human Cost of Cancer: Remember Notable People Lost in 2012 - Slideshow

Former U.S. Senator Arlen Specter represented his home state of Pennsylvania for 30 years — longer than anyone in the state’s history.

Specter, called “one of the few true wildcards of Washington politics” had been in the public eye since serving as a member of the Warren Commission, investigating the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.

He died after a long battle with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma on Oct. 14, 2012 at the age of 82.