AUGUSTA — Hundreds of people from across the state crammed into Jewett Hall at the University of Maine at Augusta this morning to honor Bennett Katz— former majority leader of the Maine Senate, prominent Augusta business owner and the man credited by many with bringing higher education to central Maine with the creation of the University of Maine at Augusta.

Katz died Thursday at the age of 89 at The Highlands retirement community in Topsham, where he lived with his wife, Edith.

U.S. Sen. Olympia J. Snowe, who attended the memorial service with her husband, former Gov. John R. McKernan Jr., said Katz was "not only the father of UMA, but the father of modern education in Maine."