4:01 p.m.: Insurance exec J. Patrick Rooney dies at 80

September 15, 2008 04:00 pm

— INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — Insurance executive and former Indiana gubernatorial candidate J. Patrick Rooney has died at age 80.
Rooney’s personal attorney, John Sullivan, says Rooney apparently died in his sleep and was found dead Monday morning at his Indianapolis home. Sullivan says a cause of death wasn’t known.
Rooney briefly sought the 1996 Republican nomination for governor and was a longtime financial contributor to GOP candidates.
Rooney was named chairman, president and chief executive of Illinois-based Golden Rule Insurance Co. in 1976 and moved the company to Indianapolis in the 1980. It was in that role that he helped win congressional approval of tax breaks for medical savings accounts, now called health savings accounts, in 1995.