Michael Merrill Day

Michael Merrill Day, 67, passed away in St Mark’s Hospital ICU after his final 2-day battle with heart disease. He was surrounded by family.

Born to J Bernell and Marjorie Beesley Day in Salt Lake City, Utah. Married Janet McElprang, later divorced. Married Jill Husband VanWagoner July 1, 2004, on a Royal Caribbean Cruise in Georgetown, Grand Cayman. Cruising and traveling became a big part of their lives after that. Mike loved seafood. Jill didn’t. He loved cruising so he could eat all the seafood he wanted!

Mike grew up in Magna, Utah, and was a Cyprus High School Pirate. He loved anything pirate and incorporated it into our lives. Our California home had a pirate room with a 6’ Blackbeard statue. He worked in construction most of his life, working with his dad at Alder Construction and JB Day & Sons until his dad passed. He loved to draw and design and worked for architectural firms. He worked in mining and for Kennecott. He also worked for Pulte Homes and Liberty Homes. Mike worked for Pentalon Construction, where he met Jill. Pentalon took us on several great trips. He worked on remodeling the Los Angeles banking area into condos for R&O Construction and building homes in the Palm Springs area for the first five years of their marriage. When the market crashed in 2008, he moved back to Utah. It was hard on both of us to give up that beautiful home and pool he built for us in Coachella.

He opened his own woodworking shop in 2009 and got Bella, our border collie, to be his shop companion. He had booths at craft events at Bear Lake Raspberry Days, Wheeler Farm Farmer’s Market, Salt Lake Family Christmas Show, California Gift Show, and others. He made Adirondak furniture, holiday décor, children’s furniture, doll furniture, bird houses/feeders, and many other things. He closed his shop in 2019 when his health started to deteriorate.

Grandma Beesley instilled the love of theater in Mike. We went to the theater often. He enjoyed the Utah Symphony movie series, and we had season tickets. He even went to Ballet West’s The Nutcracker, but just once!

Mike loved his combined family. The annual Day-VanWagoner Christmas party and annual Wyoming Downs trip were a couple of his favorite events. He is survived by his wife, his children, Michelle, Joshua (Jessica), and Melissa Day, BJ (Tori) and Andrew (Lori) VanWagoner; 7 grandchildren, Kayson, Myah, Cole, and Camryn VanWagoner, Ashton Davis, Ayden Day, and Keeley Brklacich; brother Jeff (Suzie) Day; sisters Marilyn (Bob) Childs, Leslie Wallberg; many cousins, nephews, and nieces. Preceded in death by his parents and brother, Jerry, and sweet Bella.

Viewing will be held Saturday, April 11th, from 9-10 am at Larkin Sunset Gardens, 1950 E Dimple Dell Rd (10600 S), Sandy, UT, with a graveside service and interment to follow at 10:30 am.