SOUTH PORTLAND — Former congressman and longtime U.S. Appeals Court Judge Frank M. Coffin died Monday evening at the age of 90.

Family members said Coffin died at Maine Medical Center in Portland, where he had been hospitalized since Nov. 21, when he underwent emergency cardiac surgery.

Coffin was a Lewiston native and a longtime resident of South Portland. He represented Maine’s 2nd Congressional District from 1956 to 1960, and with his good friend, the late Sen. Edmund M. Muskie, was credited with reviving the Maine Democratic Party in the 1950s.

Coffin was the unsuccessful Democratic candidate for governor in 1960, directed international economic development programs under President John F. Kennedy, and was appointed by President Lyndon B. Johnson to the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in 1965. Judge Coffin served for 41 years until he retired from active judicial service in 2006.

During his career as a judge and chief judge on one of the nation’s second-highest courts, Coffin received several honors, most recently for his commitment to public interest legal initiatives in an event sponsored by Pine Tree Legal Assistance, the Maine Bar Foundation and the University of Maine School of Law.

Gov. John E. Baldacci said in a prepared statement that he admired Coffin’s strength of intellect and dedication to the people of Maine.

“Judge Coffin was a compassionate man, a brilliant man and an icon,” Baldacci said. “Judge Coffin distinguished himself on the bench, setting the bar for judicial temperament … He will be greatly missed.”

Coffin is survived by his wife, Ruth, to whom he was married for 67 years. A private funeral is planned. A public celebration of his life will be held at 1:30 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 2,  at the Abromson Center at the University of Southern Maine.

Judge Kermit Lipez of the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Boston knew Coffin personally and professionally for many years. Although he knew Coffin was ill, Lipez, of South Portland, said news of Coffin’s death left him in a state of shock.

“On a personal level, I feel his loss acutely,” Lipez said. “He was my judicial hero. I regarded him as my mentor, my colleague and my friend. He is simply irreplaceable.”

Coffin was one of the few people to serve in all three branches of the federal government: He was a congressman from Maine and deputy administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development before he was appointed to the U.S. Court of Appeals.

Coffin made many significant legal contributions, especially in developing and guiding programs to increase low-income families’ access to legal services. He developed the Coffin Fellowship for Family Law, which has given more than a dozen young lawyers the opportunity to participate in a two-year fellowship representing low-income families, and provided direct services to more than 665 client households.

“Even near the end of his life, he was still heavily involved in that effort” to make legal services accessible to the poor, Lipez said. “I think he had a real fondness for the underdog.”

In 1992, The Frank M. Coffin Lecture on Law and Public Service was established at the University of Maine School of Law to honor Coffin’s commitment to public service. He also received the Edwin T. Dhalberg Peace Award, the Devitt Distinguished Service Award from the American Judicature Society, and numerous other awards and honors from colleges, bar organizations and civic groups.

Coffin was born in 1919 in Lewiston. He was educated in Lewiston public schools and graduated from Bates College. He served in the U.S. Navy from 1943 to 1946, then he earned degrees at Harvard Business School and Harvard Law School.

After practicing law in Lewiston in 1947, Coffin joined the Portland-based law firm Verrill Dana in 1952.

He became active in Democratic politics in the 1950s. He was chairman of the Maine Democratic State Committee from 1954 to 1956, and was elected to represent Maine’s 2nd District in the U.S. Congress in 1956 and 1958.

Although he lost a bid for governor in 1960, Coffin became the managing director of the U.S. Development Loan Fund. President John F. Kennedy planned to appoint him as U.S. ambassador to Panama, but was assassinated before Coffin’s nomination could be approved.

Kennedy’s successor, President Lyndon B. Johnson, appointed Coffin as deputy administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development, the first U.S. foreign assistance organization focused on long-range economic and social development. Coffin was based in Paris, and served there in 1964 and 1965.

When there was a vacancy on the 1st Circuit in 1965, Muskie nominated Coffin, and Johnson appointed him. Coffin served as chief judge from 1972 to 1983 and later served as senior circuit judge. He heard about 2,500 cases during his career, and was known as someone who could forge a consensus and get things done because of the enormous respect people had for him.

Lipez said Coffin was also highly regarded in national legal circles. People were impressed with his intellect, as well as by his humility and humanity.

“When I would travel around the country and people found out I was from Maine, they were always asking me, ‘Do you know Judge Coffin? How is Judge Coffin?'” Lipez said. “It was clear to me that he was not just a treasure in Maine, but he was a national treasure as well.”

Retired Judge Frank Coffin laughs at his South Portland home while remembering the time former President John F. Kennedy called Coffin after his unsuccessful run for governor in 1960. Coffin died Monday evening.