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D. Michael Stewart, a longtime Utah Republican Party statesman, former Salt Lake County commissioner and real estate developer, has died. He was 71.
His wife of 48 years, Betty Lou Stewart, confirmed Saturday that her husband had passed away Friday.
"He appeared to be in perfect health. He just went to sleep and didn't wake up," she said. "I was the one who found him. … He was very peaceful."
Stewart, one of six children of Harold and Abbie Stewart, was born in Salt Lake City on July 29, 1939. He is survived by seven children and 21 grandchildren. Funeral services were tentatively scheduled for Thursday, according to Salt Lake City's Larkin Mortuary.
Stewart's political pinnacle may have been his run for the GOP gubernatorial nomination in 1992 against eventual Republican Gov. Michael Leavitt. Stewart went into the party's convention that year nearing the end of what had been a 12-year run on the Salt Lake County Commission, ending as the panel's chairman.
Stewart, a University of Utah graduate who earned a doctorate in constitutional history and public administration from Wayne State University, taught history at Brigham Young University for seven years in the 1970s. For three years prior to joining the County Commission, he worked as a real estate developer.
Bart Barker, who served for 10 years with Stewart on the commission, remembered his friend as "an incredible leader, one of the most impressive men I've known in my life."
"We were close. One of the many things about him that impressed me is that the day he first took office [in 1981], he brought in key people at all different levels of management from all over the county . . . and several dozen goals and priorities resulted," Barker said. "He brought them all together, and we accomplished almost every one of them."
Randy Horiuchi, a member of the current Salt Lake County Council, served with Stewart on the former commission from 1990 to 1992. The two were sometimes at odds, but Stewart earned the Democrat's respect — and affection.
"Mike was one of the most genial, pleasant people to work with in the history of Utah politics," Horiuchi said Saturday. "He also was pretty nonpartisan in his approach [and] he really treasured his position and its responsibilities. He was held in high regard nationally, too, as chairman of the U.S. National Association of Counties."
Stewart's 1990-91 term as the only Utahn ever elected president of the USNAC was just one of his many public service milestones. He also served as director of Human Services for the state of Utah, was appointed by former President George H. W. Bush to the National Advisory Commission on International Relations and held a directorship with the United Nations International Year of the Family.
A lifelong member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, his latter years were busy in leadership roles within his faith, including in presidencies of the Germany Frankfurt Mission and the Salt Lake Temple Square Mission.