Flags are flying at half-staff over the nation’s capital in honor of former U.S. Sen. John W. Warner of Virginia who died Tuesday, May 25, 2021, at age 94.

Mr. Warner, a former secretary of the Navy who represented Virginia in the U.S. Senate from 1979 to 2009, died of heart failure at his home in Alexandria, with his third wife, Jeanne V.M. Warner, and his daughter at his side, according to Susan A. Magill, his longtime chief of staff.

Tributes poured in for the courtly, chisel-cheeked Republican military expert who was once married to movie star Elizabeth Taylor.

“Virginia and America have lost a giant,” Gov. Ralph S. Northam stated, noting that Mr. Warner spent almost his entire adult life in public service “as a sailor, a senator, a statesman and a gentleman who was a respected voice in Washington on military affairs.”

Gov. Northam also credited Mr. Warner with “building up his party while remaining an independent voice willing to forge bipartisan compromise. He always put Virginia first.”

The governor ordered flags at the State Capitol to be lowered to half-staff on the day of Mr. Warner’s funeral, which has not yet been announced.

Mr. Warner’s successor in the Senate, Democrat Mark R. Warner, no relation, was joined by Sen. Tim Kaine on the Senate floor Wednesday to pay tribute to Mr. Warner’s integrity and his “outsized influence” on the body.

That influence continues to be felt among minority businesses and historically Black colleges and universities, said Richmond native Lyn R. Williams, a Washington lobbyist for 40 years who served as an adviser to Mr. Warner on minority issues.

In 1987 as social programs were being cut, Mr. Williams said Mr. Warner teamed with the Congressional Black Caucus to pass legislation requiring the U.S. Department of Defense to spend 5 percent of its procurement budget with minority businesses and 5 percent of its research budget with HBCUs.

The tangible benefits, he said, are still evident in the research catfish farm at Virginia State University that continues to supply the military with fish; in the modern labs at Norfolk State University that research and design artificial limbs for amputees in the armed forces and investigate improvements in night vision goggles; and in a data center at Hampton University that computerizes paper blueprints and design for architectural students.

Mr. Williams, who bemoans the dismantling of the program after Mr. Warner left office, said that initiative not only “impacted communities of color, but all of America. The research centers he funded continue to prepare new generations of students for careers in various fields.”