Alan Greenspan, the longtime chairman of the Federal Reserve whose stewardship of the U.S. economy earned him worldwide acclaim before later drawing criticism in the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis, died Monday at his home. He was 100.

According to NBC News, Greenspan died from complications of Parkinson’s disease, his wife, journalist Andrea Mitchell, said.

Greenspan led the Federal Reserve from August 1987 until January 2006, serving under four U.S. presidents and becoming one of the most influential central bankers in American history. During his nearly 19-year tenure, he oversaw the second-longest economic expansion in U.S. history, including a decade of uninterrupted growth from 1991 to 2001.

He earned a reputation as an economic “maestro” after resisting calls to raise interest rates during the booming 1990s, believing a surge in productivity would keep inflation under control. That judgment proved correct at the time and helped fuel years of economic prosperity. Former Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell later cited Greenspan’s decision as an example of how sound judgment can sometimes outperform economic models.

However, Greenspan’s legacy became far more complicated after the 2008 financial crisis, which erupted just two years after his retirement. Critics argued that the era of light financial regulation and easy credit during his tenure contributed to the housing bubble and subsequent market collapse.

Born on March 6, 1926, in the Washington Heights neighborhood of New York City, Greenspan was raised in a Jewish family. His father, Herbert Greenspan, was a stockbroker of Romanian Jewish descent, while his mother, Rose Goldsmith, was of Hungarian Jewish descent. Following his parents’ divorce, he was raised by his mother and his maternal grandparents, who had emigrated from Russia.

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