A Nederland man who gained international fame in 2003 after claiming he was glued to a toilet seat at Home Depot was found dead in his home this week.

According to Nederland police, officers found Robert “Bob” Dougherty, 60, on Tuesday afternoon after a friend became concerned the man hadn’t called in several days.

Dougherty had been in declining health for years and the death is not considered suspicious, police said. Boulder County Coroner Tom Faure said Dougherty’s autopsy was not complete Thursday.

Dougherty became the subject of water cooler talk and late-night television jokes around the world after filing a lawsuit against the Louisville Home Depot, alleging that he entered a bathroom stall and couldn’t stand up because someone had put glue on the seat.

When Dougherty called out to employees for help, they thought his pleas were a hoax, according to the lawsuit. Eventually, fire and ambulance crews had to unbolt the toilet seat while it was still attached to Dougherty’s rear end.

A judge later dismissed the lawsuit, citing a lack of evidence that Home Depot was at fault for the glue.

Dougherty’s sister, Westminster resident Laurie Radcliffe, said her brother was always disappointed his case wasn’t taken more seriously — but he also appreciated the attention it brought.

“When you entered him into Yahoo!, for like one week, he was more famous than George Bush,” said Radcliffe, 50. “I couldn’t believe how that story got everywhere, across the whole world.”

Her brother would end up on comedy CDs, in newspapers and on television and radio, Radcliffe said, but she hopes people who knew Dougherty will remember him instead for his love of magic, electronics, fishing and the outdoors.

“He loved magic and he just loved making people happy,” Radcliffe said. “He was a true mountain man.”

Born in Munich, Germany, Dougherty was the oldest of three siblings and the son of an Irish mother and an American father stationed with the military oversees.

Dougherty worked with microwave communications for the Navy, his sister said, and later as a safety inspector for the National Institute of Standards and Technology in Boulder.

Dougherty lived in Nederland for more than 30 years, his sister said, but he never married or had children.

His ashes will be buried at Ft. Logan National Cemetery in Denver, next to those of his father, Radcliffe said. Arrangements for a memorial service are pending.

While serving in the U.S. Navy from 1967 to 1971, Dougherty once received a commendation for jumping into the waters off the Marshall Islands with a knife to save a man being attacked by a shark, according to military records provided by Mark Cohen, Dougherty’s attorney and friend.

“I just thought he was a good guy,” Cohen said. “He was an outgoing man, he was very friendly and he always had a smile on his face.”

Cohen said he last saw his friend two weeks ago during a stop at Dougherty’s house.

“He started crying and said, ‘Mark, you’ve been a really good friend,'” Cohen said.

Dougherty had long maintained that the stress of the Home Depot incident caused him lasting health problems.

“He felt that the stress from that had contributed to his diabetes,” Cohen said. “He was pretty bitter about that toward the end.”

Cohen said his friend “knew he was dying, and never wavered in his belief that Home Depot was the cause of it.”

Contact Camera Staff Writer Heath Urie at 303-473-1328 or urieh@dailycamera.com.