Yesterday, Sen. Daniel Inouye (D-Hawaii) died following a bout with respiratory complications at Walter Reed Military Hospital. He was 88.

Inouye represented Hawaii in Congress since the island state entered the United States in 1959, first as its member of the House of Representatives, and three years later as one of its senators. He was elected to his ninth term in the upper chamber in 2010.

But putting aside his lengthy legislative career, Inouye’s personal background was even more impressive. He was a World War II hero who lost his right arm in an April 1945 firefight with German soldiers in Italy. (During that battle, he was shot in the stomach, but continued to attack the German troops; he was further wounded when a grenade destroyed much of his right arm, upon which he proceeded to transfer a grenade of his own from his right hand to his left and return fire.)

Daniel Inouye was a badass, and a Medal of Honor recipient.

Later in his life, Inouye also built more of a connection to D.C.’s punk and hardcore scene than perhaps any of those congressional interlopers who have passed through this city. His son, Kenny Inouye, was the guitarist in the seminal 1980s band Marginal Man, and Senator Inouye, as buttoned-down and staid as his day job was, stood in the audience at Marginal Man’s shows at places like the original location of the 9:30 Club. BuzzFeed also recalls that Inouye was also a part-owner of one of Marginal Man’s labels.

And when Inouye went to his son’s shows, he didn’t budge ahead because of his elected status. Instead, he displayed the same equanimity and fairness espoused by the D.C. hardcore scene:

Punk may not have been the elder Inouye’s speed, but in 1984 he went to the legendary 930 club on F St NW to watch Marginal Man perform with a line up of other hardcore bands. Inouye, ever the defender of fairness and equality, refused to cut the line, opting to stand in the cold with the assorted skinheads, dreds and other punk rock kids until the doors of the club opened.

The Senate’s new president pro tempore, Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) is pretty cool himself, having had speaking roles in The Dark Knight and The Dark Night Rises, but his musical tastes run more toward that of a Grateful Dead taper. Inouye was the punkest senator.

For what it’s worth, he was also a supporter of D.C. statehood and was one of 17 cosponsors of a 1993 bill that would have admitted the District into the union.