Bill Richardson, the former U.S. governor, ambassador to the U.N. and self-described “undersecretary for thugs” who helped secure the release of several Americans from North Korea, died last week at the age of 75.

Richardson died in his sleep at his home in Massachusetts, a statement from the Richardson Center for Global Engagement announced.

“He lived his entire life in the service of others — including both his time in government and his subsequent career helping to free people held hostage or wrongfully detained abroad,” the center’s Vice President Mickey Bergman said in the statement. “There was no person that