Former State Representative and involved Brookline citizen Sumner Kaplan died Tuesday at the age of 90. Kaplan was also a  retired Trial Court judge and Brookline selectman.

Kaplan was born in Roxbury in 1920, when Roxbury was a largely Jewish community. He graduated from Boston Latin High School in 1937.

His friend, Susan Senator, said he also founded both the Brookline Community Mental Health Center and Bedside Advocates, a non-profit group dedicated to supporting patients' rights.

"He will be missed outside of Brookline as well," Selectman Jesse Mermell said of him during Tuesday night's meeting. "He was very much a go-to guy for the total perspective and the infield perspective. He will leave a gaping hole at many of the schools."

He belonged to Temple Ohabei Shalom, where Senator said in an email that he had a bar mitzvah just a few years ago.  He was married for 66 years to Brookline memoirist and former teacher Elinor Kaplan.

He spoke of his life in this video from last year.