He was a good mayor, and a very good boy.

The town of Cormorant, Minnesota, has lost surely the most popular mayor in its history.

At the ripe old age of 13 (91 in dog years), Duke the dog, sadly, passed away on Thursday.

The Great Pyrenees made a career pivot in 2014, when he was elected mayor as a write-in candidate in his hometown in Becker County, which has a population of just over 1,000.

He easily was re-elected on four occasions, before ill health forced him to call a halt on his civic duties and retire from office last July, spending his remaining months with owner Dave Rick and "adopted mother" Karen Nelson, the Bismarck Tribune reported.

It was Nelson who announced his sad death on Thursday, saying: "Our beloved mayor Duke went to doggie heaven today.

"He will be greatly missed. we will have a memorial for him in March or April at the Cormorant town hall. Thanks to all who express their condolences, it means a lot of hard times like this."

Cormorant is located about 3.5 hours northwest of the Twin Cities, just south of Detroit Lakes.