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C. Everett Koop, the U.S. surgeon general who was instrumental in promoting childhood sex education for AIDS prevention, led anti-smoking campaigns and efforts to improve diet and nutrition, has died. He was 96.

Koop served as surgeon general from 1982 to 1989, under Presidents Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush.

C. Everett Koop died at his home in Hanover, New Hampshire, on Monday, according to a statement released by Dartmouth College, where he was founder of the C. Everett Koop Institute at Dartmouth's Geisel School of Medicine. The cause of death was not given in the statement.

Dr. Koop was among the most influential of surgeon general's in the nation's history and assumed a high-profile from the moment he took office, in 1982. Commonly referred to as "America's family doctor," he was dubbed by Business Week magazine "America's real-life Marcus Welby M.D."

He used his role as chief U.S. health educator to campaign for the rights of infants with birth defects to receive medical treatment and for disabled people to have access to public facilities. Dr. Koop also campaigns to spread the awareness of how addictive and bad smoking cigarettes are for consumers. He was a former pipe smoker and wanted the nation to be smoke-free one day. He said cigarettes were as addictive as heroin and cocaine.

C. Everett Koop also stepped out of his comfort zone and shocked his conservative Christian supporters when he endorsed condoms and sex education to stop the spread of AIDS. He strongly believed that prevention is better than cure and went on to urge sex education "at the lowest grade possible" and mailed an eight-page AIDS brochure to 107 million households in 1988.

Dean of the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth Wiley W. Souba, MD, said, "Dr. Koop has had a profound influence on the health of all of us in our nation. We have been fortunate to have him in our midst at Dartmouth and at the Geisel School of Medicine. He constantly reminded us of the important lessons that he learned in his professional life of caring for children that could show us how to provide health care for people of all ages."

Koop is survived by his wife, three children and seven grandchildren. His first wife died in 2007.