So, he died close to the end of the life expectancy and he died of something.
72 is not that old.....just ask any 72 year olds.
Current Life Expectancy is 75.9 years, according to the SSA.
http://www.ssa.gov/OACT/STATS/table4c6.html
He lost 4, in an average sense.
He could also have been hit by a bus prematurely.
If you make it to 72, your actuarial life expectancy is somewhere in the mid 80’s.
Besides that COPD is a horrible way to go, in some ways as bad as going with cancer.