John Zampieri didn’t care how long it took. In the weeks after his January birthday, the former buildings commissioner and legislator was in his Ryegate home writing letters by hand. They were thank-yous for nearly 200 notes he had received — solicited by his daughters in a local paper — wishing him well and reflecting on how he’d inspired them.

“He never expected to receive that many,” daughter Rebecca Zampieri said. But looking at his life in Vermont, it isn’t exactly a surprise. Zampieri, the namesake of the state office building in Burlington, died Monday from advanced heart failure at Tufts Medical Center in Boston. He was 80. Family members are still finalizing service details.