Former Utah Insurance Commissioner Roger Day, a force in the industry throughout his lifetime, died Thursday, July 18, at the age of 71.
Day served as head of the department from 1977 until 1985. When appointed by Gov. Scott Matheson, Day was 29 years old, making him the youngest commissioner in the United States at the time.
At the time, Day said his role was two-fold: to protect consumers and to guard the financial integrity of insurance companies.
Some were skeptical that a man so young and with little experience was up to the job, but former Gov. Mike Leavitt said the reason for Matheson’s confidence in Day became quickly apparent as he earned a reputation as a thoughtful and fair regulator.
Within his first few months on the job, Day “launched and oversaw a complete rewrite of Utah’s outdated insurance laws,” said Leavitt, a former insurance industry executive himself. “This recodification took four years but Utah’s law became a model insurance code that was used as a pattern by many other states.”
Day became a leader among insurance regulators nationally, and his opinion remained influential throughout his career, Leavitt said.
“Roger Day has left his shaping marks on the insurance industry and Utah as a whole,” said Leavitt, who served as Health and Human Services secretary under President George W. Bush.
In 1982, his expertise was recognized by colleagues when he was elected president of the National Association of Insurance Commissioners.
Pat Shea is a former Utah Democratic Party chairman who served on the drafting committee for the new insurance law installed during Day’s tenure. He said the work entailed more than 400 pages of statutory language — a task he described as “Herculean.”
Day “could best be characterized as a continuous catalyst for constructive change,” Shea said.
A graduate of Olympus High School, Day earned his political science degree from the University of Utah, where he was elected president of the Young Democrats in 1967.
His first job out of college was working for the Beneficial Life Insurance Co. He also lobbied for the insurance industry at the Utah Legislature before catching the attention of Matheson, who, in appointing Day insurance commissioner, said he supported his “desire to inject creative thought into the department.”
A celebration of Day’s life for family and friends will be held from 6 p.m to 8 p.m. Thursday, July 25, at Starks Funeral Parlor, 3651 S. 900 East, Salt Lake City. Services will be held at 11 a.m. Saturday, July 27, at the Yalecrest Ward Chapel, 1035 S. 1800 East. The family receive friends prior to the service, beginning at 10 a.m.
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