SALEM — Former Oregon House Speaker Lynn Lundquist wanted to be remembered as a man who gave more than he took.

On Tuesday morning in Powell Butte, the family man, the rancher, the state and county politician, died. He was 78. And by all accounts, his death ended a legacy of giving: to his family, to his community and to the state.

House Republican Leader Mike McLane, also of Powell Butte, said Lundquist was the neighbor always on hand, ready to build a fence or help burn brush. He “lent a hand with a smile,” McLane said. “That was Lynn’s way.”

Crook County Judge Mike McCabe, who sat on county court with Lundquist, put it this way: “He was always just trying to be everywhere, helping everybody.”

Elected to the Oregon House as a Republican in 1994, Lundquist served as House majority leader and then speaker of the House before mounting an unsuccessful campaign for secretary of state against a chief rival. Back home, Lundquist served on the Crook County court and a slew of nonprofit boards and was instrumental in the creation of the Powell Butte Charter School.

Lundquist spent Tuesday morning working on his Powell Butte ranch, then returned home and was sitting at the kitchen table, chatting with a friend, when he died. The exact cause is unknown.

His wife of 42 years, Barbara Lundquist, was also in the kitchen. “He died in my arms,” she said.

Before 1994, Lundquist never sought elected office. But he was always a family man. He met his wife, Barbara, while she was a waitress in Newberg. He was recently divorced, teaching economics at George Fox University.

He routinely started showing up at the restaurant as her shift was about to end.

“There are not enough adjectives to tell you what a wonderful person he was,” Barbara Lundquist said of her husband.

The couple had eight children, including five that Lundquist adopted from Barbara’s previous marriage. They also had more than 18 foster children over the years.

“How many people marry a woman with five kids, because they love him? And that’s just the way he was,” she said. “He had so many friends. So many friends, but as a husband, like I said, I can’t even tell you how special.”

As a rancher, Lundquist served as president of the Deschutes and Crook county cattlemen’s associations and as president of the Oregon Cattlemen’s Association from 1993 to 1994. He took a turn as chairman of the Crook County Planning Commission and was appointed to the state Board of Agriculture.

In 1994, Lundquist entered the race for an open House seat representing large swaths of Central and Eastern Oregon. He cruised to an easy victory over his Democratic opponent in the fall, and was chosen as House majority leader, a post given to a freshman legislator just three times before.

In his second term, Lundquist was chosen as speaker of the House. With Republicans holding a narrow edge in the House, Lundquist brokered multiple deals with Democrats that ultimately undermined his position within the party.

Lundquist won a third term in 1998, but Republicans chose a more conservative candidate for the speakership, Lynn Snodgrass of Boring. The two clashed and Snodgrass removed Lundquist as chairman of the education budget committee. With few Republican allies, Lundquist set out on his own, campaigning for higher education funding and working with Democrats to pass a gun show background check bill.

The rivalry carried over into the next election: both ran for secretary of state. Snodgrass edged Lundquist in the May 2000 primary, but was defeated in November. Lundquist took a job as director of the Oregon Business Association.

In 2006 Lundquist returned to politics, winning a seat on the Crook County Court. Four years later, newcomer Seth Crawford upended Lundquist’s re-election bid in the Republican primary.

Former Crook County Judge Scott Cooper served on the county court with Lundquist, and called him “formidable.”

“He was always passionate about his community,” Cooper said. “He took a real interest in the early learning council and he was a big advocate for property rights of farmers and the balance of the land-use system.”

It will be difficult, Judge McCabe said, to replace a man like Lundquist.

“It’s a sad day,” he said. “He worked so hard for all the people of Oregon.”

His wife, Barbara, still in shock Tuesday morning, said she couldn’t ask for a better husband or father for her children.

“And I know where he is now,” she said.

Lundquist is survived by seven children, 14 grandchildren and three great-grandchildren. He was preceded in death by one son.