“We have lost a dear friend and a passionate and dedicated supporter of recreation in Utah,” Mike Styler, executive director of the Utah Department of Natural Resources, wrote in the release. “Fred will be sorely missed. Our immediate concern is for Fred’s family, his wife Serena and their five children.”
Hayes became the division director in 2012. He started in the parks department in 1982, as a seasonal ranger aide at Starvation State Park in Duchesne. Before joining the parks field, he taught biology, math and health in public schools.