The Klein family issued the following statement on Friday:
 
"My beloved husband Ralph has slipped away after 42 years of marriage, and 70 years of life. 
 
In his public life, while many will now debate what he stood for, he himself simply believed that public service was important, that it need not be complicated, and that it revolved around people. 
 
In his private life, his greatest gift to his family was that when the long work days were over, and he came home, it was his sanctuary, and the politics stopped at the door. 
 
If the public will love him for all the things he did for them, his family will forever love him for all the things he meant to us.
 
-Colleen Klein
On behalf of the extended Klein family