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Filner largely disappeared from public life after his 2013 as mayor that reflected the same fiery, defiant tone that launched the political career of the former congressman and 1960s civil rights activist. But, ultimately, Filner agreed to step down as leader of the nation’s eighth-largest city amid the flurry of sexual harassment allegations from at least 17 women.

He months later to charges of false imprisonment and battery involving three women. He was sentenced to three months of home confinement and three years of probation. The city of San Diego spent more than $1 million to settle multiple lawsuits filed by women.

He had held the office for less than nine months of a four-year term after becoming San Diego’s first Democratic mayor in 20 years.

Born Sept. 4, 1942, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Robert Earl Filner waded into politics as a sophomore at Cornell University, when he joined the Freedom Riders in the 1961 in their campaign against a segregated South. He spent two months in a Mississippi jail for inciting a riot after he and others confronted an angry mob at a bus station.

In 1970, he accepted a position at San Diego State University, where he taught history for more than 20 years before running for a seat on the San Diego Unified School District Board of Education.

He went on to be elected to the City Council and then U.S. House of Representatives in 1992 as a progressive Democrat who fought for veterans, underserved communities and labor unions. As chair of the House Veterans Affairs Committee, he also helped secure $200 million to provide pension benefits for Filipino veterans who served in World War II as part of the 2009 stimulus bill.

He resigned from Congress in 2012 to run for San Diego mayor, winning easily.

Filner is survived by two children, his daughter Erin Filner and son Adam Filner, as well as by his brother Bernard Filner and two grandchildren. He is also survived by two former wives, Barbara Christy and Jane Merrill.