David Lee Fair

1958 - 2018

David Lee Fair of Harvard, Massachusetts, passed away peacefully at home Sept. 14 after a heroic four-year odyssey with cancer.
David was born Jan. 31, 1958, in a U.S. Army hospital in Ota, Japan.  He grew up in Brighton, where he graduated from Brighton High School in 1976 and was a member of the Brighton Bulldogs football team. 
In 1981 David graduated from Denver University with a degree in history which he continued to study voraciously for his entire life.  After college, he moved to Arizona to attend the Thunderbird School of Global Management, where he played on the rugby team and graduated with a masters degree in business administration in 1984. 
A Thunderbird classmate and future best man, Matt Haller, introduced David to Intel Corp. in Oregon, where he spent the next 15 years reveling in the dynamic high-tech startup environment, especially within the supercomputer division. While working full-time at Intel, he found the time to earn a law degree from Lewis and Clark Law College in four years.  From 1999 until he was too ill to work, David worked as a consultant with numerous high-tech startups. During his cancer battle, he became a financial services professional and licensed agent with New York Life.
Besides football and rugby, David loved the outdoors, especially camping and hiking in the Rocky and Cascade mountains and whitewater rafting in Oregon.  He met his future wife, Natasha, on a rafting weekend on the Deschutes River in Oregon, and they were rarely apart for the next 30 years. 
His pride and joy were their four daughters, Cheryl Barry (Dickon), Stacey, Aislyn and Vivien.
In addition to his wife and children, survivors include his parents, Dr. Ron and Patricia Fair; a brother, Rod (Monica); a brother, Lyle (Karri); his parents-in-law, Professor James and Virginia Wei; a brother-in-law, Alexander Wei; a sister-in-law Christina Wei (Daniel O'Leary); three nieces; and four nephews.  His nephew, Grant, preceded him in death.
His family is grateful to all of the doctors, nurses and other caregivers who supported him throughout his treatments for the past four years at the MGH Cancer Center. They also wish to thank the staff at Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital in New Jersey, where he miraculously survived emergency surgery to spend another five months enriching the lives of those around him with his quick sense of humor, extraordinary endurance and undying optimism. 
The last few months were especially supported by the loving care of Drs. O'Leary and Wei, the staff at New England Life Care and the HealthAlliance Home Health and Hospice.
David had a green burial at Mt. Auburn Cemetery in Cambridge Sept. 28.  There was a celebration of his life at his home in Harvard, Massachusetts, Sept. 29. There was a memory wall at the celebration for those who wanted to share memories in writing and photographs. 
Memorial donations in David's honor can be made to the MGH Cancer Center at www.giving.massgeneral.org/cancer/donate.
Tabor-Rice Funeral Home in Brighton handled arrangements.