Alan Greenspan dies at 100

(The Hill) — Alan Greenspan, who served five terms as chair of the Federal Reserve, died on Monday at the age of 100.

Greenspan's wife, longtime NBC News journalist Andrea Mitchell, said in a statement to the network that her husband died from complications of Parkinson's disease.

"He was a giant of a man who helped shape the U.S. economy for decades under presidents of both parties, but was always honest in acknowledging his mistakes," Mitchell added, according to NBC News.

"To me, he was my husband, who shaped my life from our very first date in 1984. He had 'irrational exuberance' for baseball, the Washington Commanders, tennis, golf and music, especially jazz," she continued. "He will be remembered for his brilliance and his kindness. Being his life partner was the joy of my life."

Greenspan served as the 13th chair of the central bank from 1987 to 2006, a tenure spanning four presidents — Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton and George W. Bush.

Greenspan is the second-longest tenured Fed chair in American history, behind William McChesney Martin.

From 1991 to 2001, he presided over the second-longest economic expansion in American history, according to the National Bureau of Economic Research.

But the bipartisan Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission reported in 2011 that Greenspan contributed to the economic crisis of 2007-08 by championing deregulation of the financial sector that led to an "explosion" in risky subprime lending and securitization.

Greenspan was born on March 6, 1926, in the Washington Heights neighborhood of New York City. He attended George Washington High School and studied clarinet at the Juilliard School for one year.

Greenspan received his bachelor's and master's degrees in economics from New York University (NYU) in 1948 and 1950, respectively.

He pursued an advanced economics degree at Columbia University under future Fed Chair Arthur Burns, but later withdrew. In 1977, Greenspan received his Ph.D. in economics from NYU.

Greenspan, a Republican, joined former President Richard Nixon's 1968 campaign as a domestic policy coordinator. He later served as the 10th chair of the Council of Economic Advisers (CEA) from 1974 to 1977, under former President Gerald Ford.

That stint at the CEA interrupted his lengthy tenure as chairman and president of economics consulting firm Townsend-Greenspan & Co. Greenspan began in the role in 1955 and left in 1987, when Reagan nominated him to succeed Paul Volcker as Fed chair.

During his time in charge of the central bank, Greenspan ushered the U.S. economy through the end of the Cold War, the dot.com bubble and two recessions.

Economists Alan Blinder and Ricardo Reis once wrote that from 1998 through 2004, there were 14 recorded dissents from the central bank head's position at votes of the Federal Open Market Committee, which sets interest rates.

"Under the Greenspan standard, his rule is rarely questioned," Reis and Blinder, who served as vice chair of the Fed during Greenspan's tenure, noted.

Greenspan retired in 2006, with the younger Bush appointing Ben Bernanke to succeed him. Months earlier, the then-president awarded Greenspan with the Presidential Medal of Freedom — the country's highest civilian honor.

Janet Yellen, Jerome Powell and now Kevin Warsh have served as Fed chair since Greenspan's departure. Bernanke and Powell served for eight years, while Yellen served for four, and Warsh began his first term in May.

Greenspan married artist Joan Mitchell in 1952, but the marriage was annulled less than a year later. He dated late journalist Barbara Walters in the late 1970s, and began dating Andrea Mitchell in 1984.

Thirteen years later, the two married at a ceremony presided over by the late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.