The Supreme Court has announced the death of retired Justice David Souter.

The court said Souter died on May 8 at his home in New Hampshire at the age of 85.

“Justice David Souter served our Court with great distinction for nearly twenty years. He brought uncommon wisdom and kindness to a lifetime of public service. After retiring to his beloved New Hampshire in 2009, he continued to render significant service to our branch by sitting regularly on the Court of Appeals for the First Circuit for more than a decade. He will be greatly missed.” Chief Justice John Roberts said in a statement.

Souter was born in Melrose, Massachusetts, on Sept. 17, 1939, to a father who was a banker and a mother who was a store clerk, CNN reported. He went to grade school in New Hampshire and spent summers with his grandparents while growing up.

He graduated from Harvard College and after two years as a Rhodes Scholar at Magdalen College, Oxford, earned an A.B. in Jurisprudence and an M.A. in 1963, the court said.

He earned an LL.B. from Harvard Law and became an associate at Orr and Reno in New Hampshire from 1966 to 1968. He served as Assistant Attorney General of New Hampshire after leaving the law firm.

He was named as an Associated Justice of the Superior Court of New Hampshire in 1978 and was then appointed to the Supreme Court of New Hampshire in 1983. In 1990, he was named a judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit.

Former President George H.W. Bush appointed Souter to the Supreme Court in 1990.

He eventually served 19 years, retiring in 2009. His retirement opened the door for the first Latina justice to be on the bench, Justice Sonia Sotomayor, appointed by former President Barack Obama.

He was called the “stealth nominee” with Bush and his advisers hoping he would swing the high court to the right, when Souter took over the seat vacated by liberal William Brennan, CNN reported.

Bush said he was familiar with Souter’s “general views” but didn’t use “the litmus test approach” on hot-button topics such as abortion, Reuters reported.

The news outlet called it a “misreading that continues to reverberate today.”

While on the bench, Souter, a Republican, frequently sided with liberal judges on abortion, church-state relations, freedom of expression and the accessibility of federal courts, The Associated Press reported.

Obama said of Souter upon his retirement, according to Reuters, “He came to the bench with no particular ideology. He never sought to promote a political agenda. And he consistently defied labels and rejected absolutes, focusing instead on just one task: reaching a just result in the case that was before him. He approached judging as he approaches life, with a feverish work ethic and a good sense of humor, with integrity, equanimity and compassion - the hallmark of not just being a good judge, but of being a good person.”

However, CNN said that his stances should not have been a surprise to “anyone who was paying close attention.”

“The whole point of it was that it was a Constitution and a Bill of Rights for the indefinite future,” Souter said during a 2012 event. “The application of these values, the problem of trying to make them work in practice, was an assignment that was left to the future.”

Because of the “misread,” presidents now undertake a more rigorous vetting of nominees, with jurists not breaking frequently from the party that placed them on the bench, CNN reported.

After leaving the Supreme Court, Souter still served, sitting on lower courts to fill vacancies as needed.

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