State, Indianapolis Politicans Remember Richard Lugar At Ceremony

State and local politicians gathered at Richard Lugar Plaza in Indianapolis to remember the late senator who died Sunday.

Richard Lugar entered politics after studying as a Rhodes scholar at Oxford and serving in the Navy. In 1967, Lugar put Indianapolis on the map with his plan to consolidate city and county government functions.

Gov. Eric Holcomb says that plan forever changed the entire state.

“Modern Indiana, and Indiana competing to be a national leader, was born at that moment,” Holcomb says.

Indianapolis Mayor Joe Hogsett also spoke at the ceremony. He says Richard Lugar’s greatest legacy was the way he encouraged bipartisanship.

“Senator Lugar believed that it was only by uniting, to solve tough issues … that to Senator Lugar would move our country forward,” Hogsett says.

Hogsett and Holcomb were joined by other political leaders as well as members of the Lugar family in a wreath-laying ceremony.