Christopher “Kit” Bond, whose career at the top of Missouri politics saw him rise from state auditor to governor to four-term U.S. senator, died Tuesday. He was 86.

Bond’s political career spanned four decades, during which he went from relatively liberal whiz kid who reformed and modernized state government to born-again conservative and fierce partisan.

In the Senate, Bond left no doubt that he saw himself as Missouri’s unofficial King of Pork, collecting federal largesse for constituents back home.

He defended “pork” even as others in the Senate moved to prohibit earmarks — pet projects — on spending bills. To critics, he bragged: “In the next batch, I’ll bring my own barbecue sauce.”

Missouri Gov. Mike Kehoe, in a statement Tuesday, said, “Kit, always with his trademark smile and sense of humor, was a fierce advocate for Missouri throughout his accomplished 40-year career of public service. Kit kept Missouri’s interests at heart, both in office and out, making our state a better place to live, work, and raise a family. Whenever he was thanked for his service, Kit’s response was always, ‘Serving the people of Missouri was the honor of my life.’”

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Kehoe ordered U.S. and Missouri flags to be flown at half-staff at government buildings and grounds statewide until Bond is laid to rest.

Bond helped build the modern-day Missouri Republican Party into a formidable and often-feared political operation.

The public got a rare, televised glimpse of Bond’s anger on election night in November 2000: He bloodied his fist and pounded the lectern in rage over the defeat of a fellow Republican, Sen. John Ashcroft. Bond accused Democrats of trying to steal the election after they had won a court order keeping the polls open an extra 45 minutes.

“I smelled a big fat rat,” Bond later explained.

Before Bond got involved in politics, the Missouri Republican Party was on life support.

He was born in St. Louis on March 6, 1939, and grew up in Mexico, Missouri, where his maternal grandfather, A.P. Green, created the family fortune making fireproof bricks from the high-silicon clay that underlies the area.

Bond went to prep school at Massachusetts’ elite Deerfield Academy, college at Princeton University and law school at the University of Virginia, where he was first in his class.

He came home to run for Congress in 1968 and lost that race. Another young Republican, John C. Danforth, won his race for state attorney general and gave Bond a job running his consumer protection division.

In 1970, Bond ran again, and this time he won his race for state auditor. In 1972, he was elected governor, defeating Democrat Edward L. Dowd, a prominent St. Louis lawyer. Bond campaigned on a reform platform to “throw the rascals out.”

At 33, Bond became the state’s youngest governor, and the GOP was back in business.

Governor-elect Christopher "Kit" Bond, right, and outgoing governor of Missouri Warren E. Hearnes smile for the crowds as they ride in Bond's inaugural parade in Jefferson City on January 8, 1973.

Legislative veterans mocked him, calling him “Kid” Bond. But Bond called a special legislative session to reorganize state government. He expanded ambulance service to most of the state and increased education for children with handicaps. He got legislators to pass a Sunshine Law to open up meetings and public records.

In 1976, state Republicans split between Bond and other supporters of President Gerald Ford and former California Gov. Ronald Reagan. The Reagan faction won in Missouri and social conservatives still dominate the state GOP.

Partly as a result, Bond lost his reelection bid in 1976 to Joseph Teasdale, a Democrat who ran a populist campaign accusing the “millionaire” Bond of being too cozy with corporations.

It would be the last time he would lose an election.

Bond then became president of the Great Plains Legal Foundation in Kansas City, which opposed what it considered to be excessive government regulation.

In 1980, he ran a year-long campaign to salvage his political career and defeated Teasdale in a rematch.

In 1986, Bond narrowly defeated Lt. Gov. Harriett Woods to win the U.S. Senate seat of retiring Democrat Thomas F. Eagleton.

Six years later, he won another nail-biter, and found himself Missouri’s sole Republican statewide victor.

After the party’s 1992 bloodbath at the polls, it fell to Bond to pick up the party’s pieces. He overhauled the state party organization and persuaded donors to contribute $750,000 over the next two years to finance party operations.

Bond won reelection a total of three times, his easiest victory coming in 2004 against State Treasurer Nancy Farmer.

U.S. Sen Christopher “Kit” Bond with a crowd of supporters in St. Charles County at a kickoff event for his 2004 reelection campaign. He does the baby hug with Carson Dummer, 7 months old, the son of Brenda and Scott Dummer of St. Charles County.

In the 1990s, Bond sued an investment advisor he accused of wiping out his family fortune. In 1994, his elevator scuffle with a television reporter at a charity ski benefit in Utah paid for by lobbyists turned into unwelcome TV fodder.

Bond and his first wife, Carolyn Bond, separated and quietly divorced. In 2002, he married Linda Pell, a Republican consultant in Washington and a native of Kansas City.

In 2008, a U.S. Justice Department investigation concluded that Bond’s office had pushed the White House to dismiss then-U.S. Attorney Todd Graves of Kansas City for political reasons. The report said Bond “declined” to be interviewed.

In a federal corruption investigation that year into lobbyist Jack Abramoff’s activities, a former aide to Bond pleaded guilty to concealing gifts from lobbyists. Bond called it “an unfortunate incident.”

As a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, Bond strongly supported the George W. Bush administration’s surveillance and interrogation policies, even comparing waterboarding to learning to swim.

Bond had a generally conservative voting record, opposing most abortion-rights legislation, supporting the nominations to the U.S. Supreme Court of Robert Bork (unsuccessful) and Clarence Thomas (successful) and supporting the Iraq war.

Bond’s influence in Congress was evident in Missouri’s urban areas, which benefitted from the federal monies he got for public housing, lead paint abatement, university research and Boeing’s military facilities.

In rural areas, he got funds for bridges, agriculture and other projects.

“Good” local earmarks “do not squander taxpayer dollars,” Bond wrote in a March, 2009 op-ed piece in the Post-Dispatch.

The many projects he proudly took credit for funding included: Revitalization of Washington Avenue and redevelopment of the Old Post Office in downtown St. Louis, replacement of uninhabitable housing, funds for transportation and expansion of Community Health Center services.

But with Democrats firmly in control of the Senate in 2008, the subcommittee chairmanships that had given Bond his clout over housing, environmental and other key spending were out of his reach.

With the times changing, he decided the time was right to end his political career. In a speech on the floor of the Missouri House in January 2009, he declared that he had run his last race.

“In 1973, I became Missouri’s youngest governor,” he said. “I do not intend to be Missouri’s oldest senator.”

After he left public office, he became a lobbyist for a Clayton-based bipartisan firm called Kit Bond Strategies. He also was a lawyer with the Thompson Coburn firm here. In recent years, he and his wife had lived in Ladue.

Mark Schlinkmann of the Post-Dispatch contributed to this report.

This story will be updated.

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In photos: Missouri Senator Christopher 'Kit' Bond through the years

Former U.S. Senators Kit Bond (center left) and John Danforth (center right) laugh after Bond was introduced during the start of the inauguration for Eric Greitens as Governor of Missouri in Jefferson City on Monday, Jan. 9, 2017.

Former Senator and former Missouri Governor Kit Bond (left) acknowledges the crowd after being introduced at the start of the Jay Nixon's inauguration for a second term as Missouri Governor in Jefferson City on Monday, Jan. 14, 2013. Also pictured is another former Missouri Governor, Bob Holden (right).

Missouri Senator Kit Bond greets fans at Busch Stadium on March 31, 2011 before the St. Louis Cardinals season home opener. Bond said that he has been a Cardinals fan since he was a boy.

U.S. Sen. Christopher 'Kit' Bond talks with event planner Gail Allen before a time capsule dedication ceremony on June 2, 2010 at the National Personnel Records Center under construction in the Spanish Lake area of north St. Louis County. The time capsule will be opened in 2085 to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the National Archives and Records Administration.

From left, Senator Kit Bond, Chinese ambassador Zhou Wenzhong, and Regional Chamber and Growth Association President Richard Fleming held a press conference on Jan. 26, 2009 to discuss the continued effort to make St. Louis a cargo hub for China's Midwest trade, at the Four Seasons Hotel.

U.S. Sen. Christopher "Kit" Bond is prepped with a wireless microphone for a television interview as he visits the Parents As Teachers National Center in Maryland Heights on Jan. 9, 2009 as he begins his statewide farewell tour, a day after announcing he won't seek re-election in 2010.

Sen. Christopher "Kit" Bond, R-Mo, accompanied by his wife, Linda, get a standing ovation from members of the Missouri House of Representatives on Jan. 8, 2009 in Jefferson City, before he announced that he will retire at the end of his fourth Senate term and won't run again in 2010.

Sen. Christopher Bond, R-Mo., talks to reporters on Capitol Hill in Washington, Thursday, June 5, 2008, to discuss the Democrat and Republican approaches to climate change.

Republican Sen. Jim Talent watches as one of his signs falls off the wall while senior Missouri Senator Kit Bond introduces him during a rally in Farmington, Mo., on Oct. 30, 2006. The stop was one of several that Talent was making in southeast Missouri a little more than a week before the midterm elections.

Sen. John C. Danforth, R-Mo., (left) celebrates with Sen. Christopher "Kit" Bond, R-Mo., at Bond's re-election party in 1992.

Judge Clarence Thomas, right, who was nominated to be an associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, waves off reporters' questions while making the rounds on Capitol Hill in Washington, on July 8, 1991. Thomas was accompanied by Senators Christopher Bond, R-Mo., left, and John Danforth, R-Mo. In 1974, Thomas was a lawyer in then Missouri Attorney General John Danforth's office.

U.S. President George H. Bush hands out pens after signing the farm bill, foreground, during ceremonies at the White House, Wednesday, Nov. 28, 1990 in Washington. The farm bill, a five-year, $170 billion bill will curb federal crop subsidies and prod farmers to protect the environment. Bush is joined by, from left, Senators, Richard, R-Ind., Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., Bob Dole, R-Kansas, Agriculture Secretary Clayton Yeutter, Senators. Thad Cochran, R-Miss., and Christopher Bond R-Mo.

Missouri Governor Christopher "Kit" Bond visits Weston, Missouri in 1984 to present a $200,000 grant from the Coordinating Board of Higher Education to Northwest Missouri State University for its wood harvesting project. Bond praised the project as a potential money-maker for farmers and as a means of keeping land in woods rather than erosive crops. The grant will be used by the university to pay for demonstrations of wood harvesting procedures.

Gov. Christopher "Kit" Bond, right, confers with State Rep. James "Jay" Russell, of Florissant, just off the House floor during an April 28, 1982 legislative session. Bond was lobbying for passage of the state budget, which the House later approved.

Chrysler Chairman Lee Iacocca, left, shows off the 1982 Chrysler LeBaron to Missouri Gov. Christopher Kit Bond, center, and Sen. Thomas Eagleton, D-Mo., during the ceremonial drive-off at the company plant on Sept. 9, 1981, in Fenton, Mo. The LeBaron is expected to sell or around $8,150.

Governor-elect Christopher "Kit" Bond, right, and outgoing governor of Missouri Warren E. Hearnes smile for the crowds as they ride in Bond's inaugural parade in Jefferson City on January 8, 1973.

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