Terry Dunn, who challenged the status quo at the Alabama Public Service Commission, calling for more scrutiny of Alabama Power Company’s profits and the rates charged to customers, has died.

Dunn, who lived in Southside, was 64.

Dunn’s wife, Alicia Dunn, said he died Monday night in an ambulance on the way to Riverview Regional Medical Center in Gadsden. She said the death came as a shock to the family.

Dunn, a Republican, was elected to the PSC in 2010. In an interview with AL.com in 2013, Dunn said he was advised to keep his head down and not make waves as one of the three elected members of the utility-regulating board.

Instead, Dunn called for the PSC to hold public hearings on the rates charged by Alabama Power for the first time in decades. Dunn’s idea received some support and resulted in standing-room only crowds at PSC meetings.

In August 2013, the PSC approved a change in the rate-setting process but not the rate hearings that Dunn had sought.

Dunn lost his re-election bid in 2014, losing to Chip Beeker in a runoff in the 2014 Republican primary.

In 2016, Dunn tried to return to the PSC, challenging PSC President Twinkle Cavanaugh in the Republican primary. Cavanaugh won.

David Rountree, who was chief of staff for Dunn at the PSC, said Dunn believed the relationship between the PSC and Alabama Power was too cordial and that closeness was not good for Alabama Power’s customers. Rountree said that’s what Dunn was trying to change.

“I never saw any evidence that Commissioner Dunn had a dishonest bone in his body,” Rountree said. “But he did speak his mind. And sometimes for politicians, it’s better to maybe prevaricate a little more than Commissioner Dunn did. Because he was awfully blunt.”

Before his election to the PSC, Dunn was a general contractor. Alicia Dunn said he had been taking care of rental property since leaving the PSC.

“His hobby was working,” she said.