A bunch of people posting here seem to be misreading the point of the article. The point is not that he died old but that he died in obscurity in the midst of issues that came to light in part following his work decades ago.

The article suggests he was ahead of his time in finding and exposing problems with the NSA (and CIA, FBI, etc), which seem egregious then and poignant now. The article suggests the NSA worked against him, contributing to his obscurity.

I found the article interesting, informative, and relevant.