Page 16 - NCISS Your Advocate September 2020

NCISS Member News and News for Members

Passing of Ralph Davis Day (NCISS Past President 1982-1983)

From Ed McClain, NCISS Past President (1985-1986)
I am sorry to report the unexpected death of Ralph D. Day on July 4, 2020. Ralph was the fourth president of NCISS and
the tenth recipient of the John Duffy Memorial Award.

Ralph founded Day Detectives in Jackson Mississippi in 1962 and it became the largest full-service agency in the state
with many hundreds of security personnel as well as the investigative side. Ralph sold the business in 2003 and for
several years did expert witness testimony before fully retiring in 2012.

With his work as a Committee Chair at ASIS, Ralph stalwartly represent the Council and the profession nationally. He is
survived by wife Georgia and son Harry. We have lost a good friend.

Ralph Davis Day (88), long time resident of Madison [Mississippi], died the morning of July 4, 2020 at
St. Dominic’s Hospital after a brief illness.

Ralph was born on New Year’s Day in Texarkana, Arkansas in 1932. He spent the first six years of his
life living with his parents in London, England. His father, Harold Ralph Day of Massachusetts was
Passenger Traffic Manager for U.S. Steamship Lines. In 1938, Ralph’s father succumbed to a 20-year-
old shrapnel wound to his chest in World War I. Ralph and his mother, Norma Davis Day of Texarkana,
a stage actress and radio personality, moved back to Texarkana.
The London block where they had lived was flattened by bombs as World War II began.

After Ralph finished high school he moved to New Orleans and studied foreign trade for two years. He then worked for
Hibernia National Bank as a teller and in the foreign department. After two years he pursued a different career as a
private investigator for a local security firm for several years. This would lead him to start his own business.

In 1962 Ralph moved to Jackson, Mississippi and founded Day Detectives, Inc. and served as its President for 40 years.
The firm became the largest full-service security agency in the state and provided security guards, a large central alarm
service and a private investigation department. Ralph employed as many as 900 people without discrimination. He
ultimately sold the alarm division to Entergy in 1997 and the rest of the business in 2003 to Securitas.

Ralph was active in numerous national and professional trade organizations in the security industry and served in
leadership roles in many of them. Ralph was an active participant in Crime Stoppers. After the sale of his company he
continued to work as a consultant and expert witness in the field of security for legal matters. He fully retired in 2012.
Ralph enjoyed playing golf at Colonial and Annandale Golf Clubs and was a long-time member of the Rotary Club. He
also volunteered as a reader for the Radio Reading Service of Mississippi Public Broadcasting and donated to MPB as
well as to WJSU.

He is survived by his wife of 54 years, Georgia Lovelace Day of Vardaman, MS, who was instrumental in the success of
Day Detectives. He is also survived by his son Harry Marshall Day of Madison, and his grandchildren Summer Lovelace
Day and Ethan Clark Day.

Memorials may be made to The Salvation Army, the Mississippi Food Network and the Foundation for Public
Broadcasting.

Graveside services were held at Natchez Trace Memorial Park Cemetery on Wednesday, July 8, 2020.

16