In testament to his impeccable judgment, Caspar Weinberger adopted our great state as his home. I think I speak for the people of Maine in saying that the affection and admiration were wholly mutual.

Of course, since his wife Jane is actually a Maine native, many referred to him as “Jane’s husband.” After all, as we all know, you can never get “top billing” unless you were actually born here – even if you were pivotal in the downfall of the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War. But Cap quickly became one of Maine’s most respected, admired and treasured adopted sons, because we recognized immediately that he should have been a Mainer all along.

For Cap Weinberger was the very embodiment of Maine’s independent spirit, as sturdy and resolute as our legendary, rocky coastline. Indeed, it is entirely appropriate that this towering and unique figure of the closing decades of the 20th century would find a beloved home on the towering heights of one of North America’s rare fjords, at majestic Somes Sound along the coast of Maine. We were undeniably proud that Caspar Weinberger belonged to Maine. Now, he belongs to history.

With his passing, we both mourn and celebrate a genuine patriot who, in bequeathing his life to the finest ideals of public service for nearly a quarter century, engendered the trust of three United States presidents and unabashedly fought to secure a triumph for free people everywhere. It is impossible to overestimate both the significance of that historic accomplishment or the challenge Secretary Weinberger confronted in making it achievable.

Who else but Cap, under President Reagan’s visionary leadership, could have so steadfastly and persistently gone to a Democrat-controlled House, especially with just 166 Republicans after the 1982 election, and attain a 100 percent increase in defense funding in just five years. As my former colleague from Maine, Secretary Bill Cohen, has said, Caspar Weinberger was a “formidable force.” Indeed he was the right man for the right job and at the right time.

To borrow from Winston Churchill, it became “a chain of destiny” with the serendipitous pairing of two leaders from California un-relenting in defending democracy against despotism.

The stars were truly aligned not only for President Reagan, but also for America and the world. And the result was an ultimate victory for liberty, a victory born of the core humanism that was the driving force transcending Caspar Weinberger’s entire public and private life.

During different times in his career, he was asked not only to serve as Secretary of Defense, but also previously as Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare (HEW). Because, as Caspar Weinberger Jr. said in describing his father’s philosophy: if you’re fighting to defend something, there has to be something worth defending. It was that humanistic value, coupled with the trademark persistence and resoluteness that characterized his quest to secure freedom for millions across the globe that he brought to bear in securing a critical victory for millions of America’s women in 1975.

When Cap could have sat back and allowed Congress to reject implementation of the landmark Title IX Act that prohibited sexual discrimination in educational institutions receiving federal funds, he instead fought tooth-and-nail to save this revolutionary, benchmark law. He understood that if he didn’t defend this right for America’s women, he could expect no one else to. I can tell you, I’ve met countless girls and women whose lives were forever changed by Cap’s tenacity in affording educational equality for women.

That is the mark of a man who considered public service a most noble pursuit. Indeed, the nation and the world are blessed that Cap saw honor in public service, and that he, himself, honored public service. And it was in no small part because of his continued contributions to the local school system, or to community nonprofit organizations even in his later years that so many Mainers cherished their close association with this “bicoastal” man of such strong, Down East character.

Jock and I will never forget the time that epitomized the essential humility of the man, when we ran into Cap, almost literally, at the local supermarket in Ellsworth. There was Caspar Weinberger, international figure once at the vanguard of the expansion of the free world – coming around the corner from the bread aisle, dressed in a white shirt and khakis, pushing his own shopping cart. We like to think that was the Maine influence rubbing off, or better yet, that of his wonderful, exceptional wife. Because to know Cap was to know Jane. They were truly one soul.

It has been said that “service to others is the rent we pay for a room here on earth.” Well, Caspar Weinberger’s rent was paid in full long, long ago. And yet, he never stopped working to create a better America in the world, and a better world for America. As we celebrate his life and mourn his passing, it is beyond my humble grasp to express how deeply we will miss a man of such extraordinary stature.

So let me conclude by saying, simply, we honor his life, we seek to follow his unparalleled example, and we rejoice that he is now in the hands of God, to whom we are most grateful for the life of Caspar Weinberger.

Olympia J. Snowe is Maine’s senior U.S. senator and delivered a eulogy honoring Secretary Weinberger this week at Arlington National Cemetery in Washington.