Milton Wolff, the last American commander of anti-Fascist forces during the Spanish Civil War, died Monday. He was 92.

Wolff died of heart failure in Berkeley, according to Peter Carroll, chairman of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade Archives, an organization devoted to preserving the history of North American volunteers in the war.

Born in Brooklyn on Oct. 7, 1915, Wolff was only 21 when he stepped off the New York soapboxes, where he defended his Communist views, and into the Spanish war theater. By the time he was 22, he was the ninth leader of what was known as the Lincoln Brigade, which fought to support Spain's elected leftist government against Gen. Francisco Franco.

About 3,000 Americans fought in volunteer battalions in Spain, and more than 900 were killed. About 40 are still alive today.

While in Spain, Wolff befriended Ernest Hemingway, who was writing about the conflict. Wolff would later say Hemingway served him his first Scotch.

Soon after the American fighters returned home on Dec. 15, 1939, Madrid fell to the Fascists, and the war was over.

But Wolff never stopped fighting for what he considered worthy causes, from integration in baseball to civil rights and against the Vietnam War.