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Former Wisconsin Supreme Court chief dead at 89

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Former Wisconsin Supreme Court Chief Justice Roland Day died Saturday at Oakwood Village, a Madison retirement home, while recuperating from a broken pelvis, his daughter said Tuesday. He was 89.

Day suffered the broken bone while going down stairs on his birthday June 11, Sarah Day said.

Friends remembered Day for his sense of humor. Former Gov. Patrick Lucey remembered joking when he appointed Day to the court in 1974 that “I wanted to appoint a Norwegian lawyer with a sense of humor, and he was the only one I could find.”

Day began his career as a prosecutor. He was an assistant district attorney in Dane County from 1949 until 1952 and legal counsel to U.S. Sen. William Proxmire in Washington, D.C. from 1957 to 1958.

He returned to Madison and worked in private practice until Lucey appointed him to the University of Wisconsin Board of Regents in 1972. Two years later, Lucey appointed him to the state Supreme Court.

Day was elected to the court in 1976 and re-elected in 1986. He became chief justice in 1995 and served in that capacity until he retired the next year.

Shirley Abrahamson, the court’s current chief justice, succeeded Day.

“He had a great sense of humor,” Abrahamson said. “When he became the chief, he said ’I’m going to be chief for a year. You’re going to be chief for a long time.”

The two worked together to put programs into place. Abrahamson said Day told her, “It gives you a leg up and it makes my year useful.”

Day adored his wife, Mary Jane, and “was a devoted husband and a devoted father,” she said.

Sarah Day said her father loved practicing law and with his quick wit, he “could sure get a point across.”

Lucey remembered carpooling to debates in 1954, when Day supported Proxmire and Lucey supported Jim Doyle Sr. for governor. The two would argue at the debates then ride home together in peace.

“He was a very good friend over a long period of time,” Lucey said.