Wendell Goler, a longtime Washington TV-news correspondent who was one of the earliest hires at Fox News Channel, died this week. He was 70 years old, and is believed to have died due to kidney failure, according to a tweet from Brit Hume, a Fox News contributor and former Washington Bureau chief.

Goler came aboard Fox News Channel in 1996, when the Fox Corporation-owned network was in launch mode, and worked his way up to become senior White House foreign affairs correspondent. An exact date of his death could not be immediately learned.

“Wendell was a gifted correspondent, a wonderful colleague and a Fox News original whose reporting was respected on both sides of the aisle. We extend our deepest condolences to his wife Marge and his entire family,” said Suzanne Scott, Fox News Media CEO, in a prepared statement.

Goler covered events ranging from the acquittal of George Zimmerman and the Congressional hearing on the attack of the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya to the impeachment trial of President Bill Clinton to conflicts in Syria. He also reported on the political response to the fall of Lehman Brothers in 2008, the recession in 2007 and the Bush Administration’s post-9/11 policy changes.

Before joining Fox News, Goler worked as a White House correspondent for the Associated Press Broadcast Services and a reporter for several local Washington, D.C. stations, including WJLA and WRC.He graduated with a B.A. from the University of Michigan.