Byron Fairchild ’35 *48

Belatedly the class has learned that Barney Fairchild-hiker, sailor, history professor, and military writer/adviser-died in Alexandria, Va., Aug. 1, 1996. Born in Nanticoke, Pa., he entered Princeton from Mercersburg, majored in history and international affairs, lettered in 150-lb. football, and roomed with Art Bowen.

Barney became a self-proclaimed "transient academic." He taught at Amherst, among other places. When poor eyesight blocked him from military service in WWII, he returned to Princeton, earning his MA in 1943 and PhD in 1948. His doctoral thesis won the American Historical Society's Carnegie Award. Then, Washington called. Barney worked for the Defense Dept.'s Office of Military History, where he wrote or coauthored volumes on WWII; he advised Chairman Maxwell D. Taylor, Joint Chiefs of Staff Office, in the '62 Cuban missile crisis; he worked for the State Dept., handling myriad writing assignments.

In 1936 Barney married Elizabeth Lincoln, whom he had met aboard ship coming back from France with Bowen earlier that year. Both could point with pride to ancestors who had served the US valiantly in its founding years. Barney's forebears fought in the American Revolution; Elizabeth's included the second U.S. president, John Adams. She died in 1961. Their survivors include children Martha Shepler, Margaret Arms, Lincoln Fairchild, and six grandchildren.

The Class of 1935