Sunday on his Fox News Channel show “Life, Liberty & Levin,” Mark Levin honored the life and legacy of conservative radio icon Rush Limbaugh, who passed away Wednesday at 70 after a bout with lung cancer.

“Tonight’s program is dedicated to Rush Limbaugh,” Limbaugh opened his show. “A friend to so many of us, a mentor to so many of us, a leader, and really an iconic figure in American history. I put him up there with Ronald Reagan and Bill Buckley and Milton Friedman and Thomas Sowell, but for me, he was a dear, dear friend.”

He continued, “He was the salt of the Earth. He was willing to help people he didn’t even know. Over the years, we would communicate a lot. As a matter of fact, years ago, we would text and email late into the night, early into the morning every single day. We shared our thoughts about life. We shared our thoughts about government, economics and the events of the day. And he was the smartest person, the most wise person, frankly, that I have ever known apart from my parents.”

Levin went on to detail a story about how the legendary host comforted him when he lost his pet dog.

“He was a generally decent, kind human being, and he thought deeply about deep subjects,” Levin stated. “We all got to participate in his life, and he will be gravely missed — dying at the young age of 70. And right to the end, family members tell me, he fought very hard. He was a bull; he was stubborn. He didn’t go easily. And we know those last days he broadcast on radio, he was talking to us on December 23, he was talking to you, and I could tell you, he told me many times, and he told you directly on the air how he adored you and loved you. And I could tell you it is true.”

“He lived for his family, he lived for his friends, and he lived for you.,” he added. “Radio was his passion, not TV, not writing — and he did those things, and he excelled at those things — but radio. He was bigger than life to me and to many of us. He had an enormous number of friends — people who admired him, powerful and utterly unknown. He enjoyed life; he embraced life. And I guess that’s the moral of the story, isn’t it? What you make of your life. What you contribute to your society and leave behind — that’s your legacy.”

Follow Trent Baker on Twitter @MagnifiTrent