SALT LAKE CITY (AP) - Gale Dick, a former University of Utah physics professor and co-founder of the Utah environmental group Save Our Canyons, has died at the age of 88.
Tim Dick told The Sale Lake Tribune that his father died Friday at a Salt Lake City hospital of natural causes.
The Rhodes scholar's love of the Wasatch Mountains prompted him to co-found Save Our Canyons in 1972 and to work to protect wilderness.
Salt Lake County Mayor Ben McAdams says he considered Dick to be an important adviser on environmental issues affecting Wasatch canyons.
Dick's advocacy often put him at odds with ski resorts, but he was concerned development would detract from the natural beauty of the Wasatch and have environmental consequences, including erosion of Salt Lake City's watershed.
A service will be held sometime in the fall.
Other supervisors include his wife, Ann, a son, Gale, and a daughter, Robin.