Veteran journalist is recalled as gentle, yet determined
‘New Mexican,’ ‘Journal’ reporter dies in biking accident
Thomas Day, a longtime Santa Fean who reported for the Santa Fe New Mexican, the Albuquerque Journal and other local media outlets, died on May 9 of injuries sustained from a bicycle accident. He was 79.
“He died doing what he loved doing,” said Day’s wife, Tracey Kimball.
“He was a curious man who was always looking to do something new. As a reporter he was never afraid to confront authority,” she said. “He knew that every story had more than one view and felt strongly that everyone deserved to be heard. He was particularly respectful toward people who were struggling against authority.”
Several journalists who worked with Day in the 1970s and 1980s echoed those thoughts, saying he was a gentle soul who nonetheless felt reporters had to hold government officials and entities accountable.
“He had a very strong moral sense about the role of journalists and that … they should constantly question the people in power and be skeptical of everything they said,” said Peter Katel, who worked with Day at both
The New Mexican and the Journal. Howard Houghton, a city editor for The New Mexican, agreed. “Tom had a very strong moral compass, a very strong definition of right and wrong. He wasn’t afraid to call people out when he thought they were wrong.”
Day was born on Jan. 29, 1939, in Hollywood, Fla. In his paid obituary, which he wrote years ago, Day good-humoredly said he was a child prodigy who, “at an exceptionally early age … became a preeminent gunslinger of the Wild West. By the age of 10 he had the skills to be a major league ballplayer. Due to an innate modesty he kept these accomplishments to himself.”
A 1960 graduate of Harvard University, Day came from a family of journalists. His father, Price Day, won a Pulitzer Prize in 1949 for a series of reports he wrote for the Baltimore Sun about India’s first year of independence.
“Growing up in a family of journalists, it came pretty naturally to him,” Kimball said.
In the mid- to late-1960s, Day worked for the Chicago Sun News, covering civil rights protests, among other stories. In 1968 he moved to Santa Fe, where he worked for a time in the state welfare office.
Kimball said when Day went to apply for a reporter’s job at The New Mexican, the newspaper’s reporters were striking outside. He refused to cross the picket line and waited until the strike was settled before returning to seek a job. He covered City Hall for The New Mexican for a time, gaining some recognition and courting controversy for refusing to recite the Pledge of Allegiance when the rest of the assembly stood to do so before City Council meetings. Day argued journalists should remain as distant and objective as possible on all fronts and thus not take part in such traditions.
“He didn’t feel that was what he should be doing as a reporter,” said Houghton. “That was so typical of Tom; he had strong convictions.”
John Robertson, another journalist who worked with Day in the mid-1970s, said: “He was your classic rumpled reporter. He walked around town looking a little like [TV character] Colombo. He commanded respect from those he covered but it was clear that he felt his obligations were to readers and regular people rather than the people who he covered.”
In the mid-1980s, Day left journalism to pursue a passion for woodworking, opening his own shop behind his Santa Fe home. “He was always interested in woodworking and there came the time when he could follow his lifelong interest … he taught himself,” Kimball said.
Day is survived by his wife, his children James and Stuart, his brother James and a number of cousins, nieces, nephews, grandchildren. Kimball said the family is planning a celebration of his life and will announce details at a later date.