Charles Wilber Fairfax II ’53

Pete, a Choate graduate, declined a full Yale academic scholarship to become a Tiger. And what a Tiger he was, playing right wing on the 1953 line with David Erdman and Ed Duffy on Princeton’s Pentagonal Hockey Championship team. Pete died of coronary and acute respiratory failure Dec. 9, 2008, in South Dartmouth, Mass.

Pete took his meals at Cottage and his roommates senior year included Augie Johnson, John McPhee, Herky Parke, and Ernie Preston. He graduated from Harvard Medical School in 1957, interned at Duke, and in 1958 married Eleanor Sue Burgess, a graduate of Duke’s nursing school. Sue said they were so busy with their hospital duties they had little time for courting. When Pete retired in 1995, he was a respected board-certified radiologist.  

Classmates remember that a highlight of Boston’s mini-reunion several years ago was when Pete, a lover of the sea, took a busload to Seamen’s Bethel in New Bedford, Mass., where his funeral was held later. His five children, Peter H., Laura F. McDonagh, Christopher B., Diana F. Miller, and David (“Josh”) L., spoke at the funeral service. Bayard Henry said he had never met a more functional family (there are 12 grandchildren), and Pete was the glue that held them together. Bon voyage, Pete.