During his 40-year career in the Utah Legislature, Mike Dmitrich was seen as a champion for working Utahns, helped establish college campuses in southern and eastern Utah and has a state highway named in his honor. The former Utah House and Senate minority leader died early Monday morning at the age of 87.
“I think the fondest memories you have as a lawmaker is what you can do to help your communities, or what you can do to help individuals,” Dmitrich said in a 2015 interview with the Utah Division of Oil, Gas and Mining.
Former Gov. Mike Leavitt, who held the top state office for 10 years of Dmitrich’s 40-year tenure, called the late senator “a champion of rural Utah, working people and common sense. He was among the most likable people I’ve ever known.”
Democratic Sen. Luz Escamilla, the current Senate Minority leader, said Dmitrich taught her “invaluable skills, especially the art of negotiation and collaboration across party lines — both essential to creating good public policy. His legacy as a rural Democrat continues to resonate today, and his contributions will always be cherished by our caucus.”
Blaze Wharton, who was mentored by Dmitrich in both the House and Senate as a young legislator, echoed the sentiment, adding that Dmitrich taught him everything he’s learned about legislative politics.
“If your definition of politics is the art of compromise, there was no better politician than Mike Dmitrich, bar none. To Mike, politics wasn’t a game or a hobby or a sport — it was serious. He was trying to do good for his constituents,” Wharton said. “I owe everything — good, bad or indifferent — to him. I always tried to be as much like him as I could.”
Steve Barth, a former House member who also learned under Dmitrich’s leadership, called him “an old-style politician” who could make and stick to a deal. “And he worked well with the other side and was a great communicator.”
“He was loved by both sides. He wasn’t contentious or argumentative,” Barth said.
Dmitrich was born in Murray on Oct. 23, 1936, the only child of Mary Milovich and Dan Dragon Dmitrich, and grew up in the town of Highland Boy, near what was then the Bingham Copper Mine until the family moved to Price after Dmitrich finished the sixth grade.
“I think growing up in Carbon County is probably one of the greatest experiences that you could have,” Dmitrich said in the 2015 interview. “You were around a lot of grown-ups and a lot of stuff is going on within the community, within the towns, you know. They had gambling, they had liquor and all that stuff until everybody cracked down on them. So you really got a life experience, how to grow up in a world and be a part of that world.”
Dmitrich left Price after being recruited to play football at Utah State Agricultural College — which later became Utah State University — lining up on both the offensive and defensive lines and earning a scholarship.
He later returned to Price and worked in the Sunnyside mine until 1957 when his father was killed while working a different shift in the same mine.
In 1958, he married Georgia “Bo” Hatsis and they went on to have three children, Stephanie, Tony and Dana Marie.
(Ryan Galbraith | The Salt Lake Tribune) Sen. Mike Dmitrich in 2004.
After leaving the mine, Dmitrich worked a short stint at the local bank, he said in 2015, “cashing checks for all those guys I worked with in the mine, and their checks were a lot bigger than mine, so I went back.”
And then in 1968, longtime state Sen. Omar Bunnell convinced him to run for an open Utah House seat, and after a tough primary fight Dmitrich went on to win the general election. He served 22 years in the House before Gov. Norm Bangerter appointed him to replace Bunnell, who stepped down for health reasons.
He spent 18 more years in the Senate, including serving as Senate minority leader from 2001 to his retirement in 2008. During his last year in office, the Legislature voted to rename Utah Highway 6 as the “Mike Dmitrich Highway,” for his efforts to get improvements for what was among the most treacherous roads in the state.
He was the last Democrat to win a district south of Salt Lake County.
Dmitrich also worked in government affairs for a series of mining and coal companies.
Doug Foxley, a Republican lobbyist who knew Dmitrich during his 40-year legislative career and from fishing trips after, said Dmitrich’s values and personality made it easy for GOP lawmakers to work with their colleagues from the minority party.
“He’s an old-school, pro-union, pro-economic development, pro-Utah family Democrat, and was a different breed than a lot today,” said Foxley.
“No one that I have ever known has done more to bridge gaps between Republicans and Democrats, urban and rural, various ethnic and religious groups, than Mike Dmitrich,” Foxley said. “He’s a great man with a great legacy.”
(Tribune file photo) Retired state Sen. Mike Dmitrich, right, chats outside the state Senate chambers. Dmitrich is one of a large cadre of former lawmakers who return to Capitol Hill as lobbyists.
In addition to his talent for compromise, Dmitrich had a beguiling wit and loved to swap stories between votes.
Wharton recalls when a lawmaker from Utah County was trying to get a “significant” amount of money — between $50,000 and $100,000 as Wharton remembers — to study why teens were getting pregnant. “Mike stood up and said, ‘If you give me $50, I’ll tell you right now why they’re getting pregnant.”
When he sat down, he looked over at Wharton, who was laughing uncontrollably, and said, “Well I’m right, aren’t I?”
During his tenure in the Legislature, Dmitrich was an advocate for coal miners and the industry. He also helped the College of Eastern Utah transition into Utah State University Eastern, with campuses now in Price and Blanding. Dmitrich also served on a state committee created to investigate the 2007 Crandall Canyon coal mine collapse that killed six miners and later three rescuers.
“He was very, very pro-labor,” said former Sen. Gene Davis. “He was probably the biggest union representative up there since Ed Mayne.” Mayne was the long-time president of the Utah AFL-CIO. He died in 2007 of cancer. His wife, Karen Mayne, who also was a prominent union leader, took his seat and held it until 2023. She died earlier this year.
Outside of the Capitol, Dmitrich refereed a number of high school and college sports and was an avid golfer.
He is survived by his wife, Bo, their three children, three grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.
Correction: Oct. 3, 10 a.m. • The story has been updated to reflect that Steve Barth was a state representative and to add a comment from former Gov. Mike Leavitt.
