Monroe Calvin Gollaher, 64, of Boise, Idaho, passed away Monday, July 25, 1994 at his home, after resolutely battling cancer for over 12 years.
Funeral services will be held at 2 p.m., Friday, July 29, 1994 at the Maple Grove Stake Center of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Friends and family may attend the viewing beginning at 1 p.m.Born April 28, 1930 in the kitchen of his parent's home in Tooele, Utah, Monroe was the second of seven children born to Fauntella Stephensen and Monroe Leonard Gollaher. He attended South High School in Salt Lake City, and completed four years at the University of Utah School of Engineering between 1947 and 1954. He also completed the Aviation Flight Training Program of the U.S. Navy at Pensacola Naval Air Station, Florida.
Monroe married Nancy Lee Flowers, his childhood sweetheart, whom he dearly cherished always, in the Salt Lake LDS Temple, May 23, 1951.
Employed by the USF&G Insurance Company as a special agent, he moved his family to Boise in 1965 to become the company's service office manager for Idaho. He entered public service in 1967 as supervisor of the public service division of the Idaho Department of Insurance. In 1973, governor Cecil D. Andrus appointed Monroe as director of the Department of Insurance, a post he held for seven years. During his appointment, he was able to reorganize and streamline department operations, develop training materials and licensing procedures for insurance consultants, and reform several of Idaho's insurance laws and regulations, including Idaho's Tort Claims Act. He later drafted implementing legislation creating a state liability fund for the cleanup of petroleum storage tanks throughout the state, and became the Petroleum Storage Tank Fund's first bureau chief in 1990. With his retirement earlier this year, he received a special recognition award from U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for his ground breaking efforts in the field.
Monroe was known by all who knew him to have a deep and abiding reverence for all life. His love of the land and all growing things (especially spruce trees) was surpassed only by his great love and devotion to his family. Patiently and lovingly he taught his children and grandchildren to love life and each other, plant seeds, and to always "be cheerful in the face of adversity", a precept he remained true to throughout his life. He was respected as a man of exceptional and unrelenting honesty with a deep dedication to the public good. A High Priest of the LDS Church, he was a teacher who led by example, dedicating his life to the love and service of others, both within and without his own church and family.
Inside the appearance of careful, conservative pragmatist was the grand soul of a noble and romantic adventurer who passionately sought after truth and all things beautiful. With the life his Father gave him, he truly added beauty and value to the world.
Monore is survived by his wife, Nancy; his mother, Fauntella; and his brothers and sisters, Doris Reid, Jack Gollaher, James Michael Gollaher, Fauntella Marie Ogle, and Julia Lee Vance; his sons, Michael, Kevin and Mark; daughter, Erin Taylor; and 13 grandchildren. He was preceded in his passing by his father, Monroe Leonard and his sister, Patricia Hoffman.
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