<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
</head>
<body>
<p><em>William Peter “Bill” Fay</em> was born in the Bronx, NY to Joseph and Helen Fay on April 15, 1937. He joined twin older brothers Walter and Joseph. The family was deeply involved in local affairs: his father was a fire captain, one brother was a police officer and the other was a firefighter. The family was active in their local Catholic parish, which they described proudly as “integrated” since it had Italian as well as Irish parishioners. Bill attended Fordham Preparatory and a year at Fordham College, where he played basketball and ran track, then journeyed up the Hudson to West Point in July 1956.</p>
<p>At West Point, Bill quickly became accustomed to cadet life. He earned a Major “A” by breaking the Academy high jump record and wore the “A” proudly the rest of his life (on his cadet gray jacket and then on his West Point bathrobe). He served the Football Team as a photographer for all four years, allowing him to be a part of the outstanding Army teams of that era, meeting many prominent and interesting people. Bill also served on the Ring and Crest committee all four cadet years and as a Catholic acolyte. In his own words, although he had some close calls with the academic and tactical departments, he survived. He greatly admired and respected his classmates, particularly his A-1 classmates, and considered West Point a “great experience.” He was commissioned in the Signal Corps and assigned to Germany. Bill was part of a combined arms company of over 200 Army and Air Force communicators. In August 1961, his unit was deployed for several weeks into remote corners of the Black Forest as a result of tensions arising from the Berlin Wall. He later transferred to Special Forces and was assigned to the 10th Special Forces group in Bad T<span style="font-size: small;">Ö</span>lz, Germany. His tour in Germany left him with a lifelong appreciation for the country, its people, its culture, and its food. </p>
<p>Bill went back home to the Bronx after his active military service and continued in the New York National Guard for another two years. He decided to join his father and brother in the New York Fire Department, but there was a wait to get into the Fire Academy, so he took a position as an elementary school teacher. He immediately noticed the school’s special education teacher, Marie McCaughan. They were married in 1967, the beginning of a 55-year marriage. Their four children arrived in the first five years of their marriage. Soon thereafter he entered the Fire Academy and, upon successful completion, joined the Fire Department of New York.</p>
<p>Bill’s service as a fireman in New York led to desk duty after he was injured in a fire. The Fire Department was offering nursing training as part of their evolution into emergency responders, and Bill accepted the training. After graduating from nursing school, he went to work for the Veterans Administration. On medical advice, his family relocated to Tempe, AZ, where he lived for the rest of his life, returning annually with Marie to their beloved Bronx to visit family members. The remainder of Bill’s professional career was spent working in psychiatric care for veterans in Phoenix until his retirement in 2004. He also remained active in the Resurrection Catholic Church.</p>
<p>Bill’s later life revolved around his family. All four of his children graduated from Arizona State University. He and Marie were blessed with 12 grandchildren and, as he put it, wonderful in-laws. His grandchildren named him Pa, and he was a permanent fixture at every game, graduation, performance, sacrament and event in his grandchildren’s lives. He took every opportunity to remind his grandchildren how proud he was of them. Each year that Bill and Marie returned to the Bronx they took one grandchild with them to see the city, see important places in their lives, and visit family. They also enjoyed visiting a vacation place they had in Ouray, CO, escaping the summer heat of Arizona’s “Valley of the Sun.”</p>
<p>As his family stated in his obituary, Bill navigated life’s challenges with grace and humor, drawing strength from his faith in God. If Pa met you, you were in his prayers. Bill was always a loyal and dedicated West Point graduate. He proudly displayed a large West Point Class of ’60 bumper sticker across the back of the wheelchair he used following a stroke in 2018 and wore his “well adorned and threadbare” West Point bathrobe with its Major “A” right up to his final admission to the hospital. He was an active participant in West Point reunions, including a Company A-1 Class of 1960 mini-reunion in Florida in 2018 and the virtual “60@60” reunion in 2021.</p>
<p>Surrounded by his family, Bill’s final roll call was on February 15, 2022. His final thoughts were of Family, God, and Country. He was a steady force that every member of his family, his workplace, the community, the congregation, and the country always knew they could depend upon. He never failed any of them.</p>
<p>Well Done, Bill; Be Thou at Peace. </p>
<p><em>— His classmates</em></p>
</body>
</html>