FARGO, N.D. - U.S. District Judge Rodney Webb, appointed by former President Ronald Reagan to the federal bench in North Dakota in 1987, has died after a battle with cancer . He was 74.

Webb died Sunday afternoon, said Todd Dudgeon, the deputy in charge of the U.S. District Court office in Fargo.

A Cavalier native, Webb earned his law degree at the University of North Dakota in 1959. He went on to serve as the prosecutor for Walsh County, as a municipal judge in Grafton and as a special assistant attorney general for North Dakota.

Reagan named Webb the U.S. attorney for North Dakota in October 1981 and appointed him to the bench six years later.

Webb was a senior district judge the past seven years, meaning he was semiretired but still heard cases.