SANTIAGO, Chile (AP) — Patricio Aylwin, a lanky law professor who played a decisive role in restoring Chile’s democracy after 17 years of brutal dictatorship and was later elected president, died on Tuesday. He was 97.

Interior Minister Jorge Burgos said the former president’s health had deteriorated in recent days but did not give a cause of death.

Aylwin was at the center stage of Chilean politics for over half a century, and despite being president, senator and seven times head of his centrist Christian Democratic Party, he often insisted he didn’t see himself as a leader.

Chileans, however, viewed him as a key figure in efforts to prevent the bloody military coup that brought Gen. Augusto Pinochet to power, and they later elected him as the first president to follow the 1973-90 dictatorship.

President Michelle Bachelet declared three days of national mourning and said Aylwin will receive a state funeral.

The legacy of his 1990-94 government includes strong economic growth and the continuation of Pinochet’s free-market policies, but with more government control “because the market is cruel,” as well as his efforts to learn the truth about the human rights violations that bloodied Chile.