NEW YORK (AP) — Former President Bill Clinton and former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton are remembering Ed Koch as a fierce advocate for his city and a friend "whose convictions ran deep."
The Clintons have issued a statement warmly recalling the former New York City mayor as a man with a personality big enough to match the nation's largest city. They call him a leader who "stood up for the underprivileged and underrepresented" in every corner of New York.
And they say that whether or not you agreed with Koch, "you couldn't help but like him."
Koch died of congestive heart failure Friday at 88.
The funeral will be Monday at Temple Emanu-El in Manhattan.
Koch will be buried at Trinity Church Cemetery in his beloved Manhattan. He had his tombstone inscribed with the last words of Daniel Pearl, the Wall Street Journal reporter beheaded by Islamic militants: "My father is Jewish, my mother is Jewish, I am Jewish."
