Paul Burgess Fay Jr. (July 8, 1918 – September 23, 2009) was the Acting

United States Secretary of the Navy The Secretary of the Navy (SECNAV) is a statutory officer () and the head (chief executive officer) of the United States Department of the Navy, Department of the Navy, a military department within the United States Department of Defense. On Mar ...

in November 1963, and a close confidant of President

John F. Kennedy John Fitzgerald Kennedy (May 29, 1917 – November 22, 1963), also known as JFK, was the 35th president of the United States, serving from 1961 until his assassination in 1963. He was the first Roman Catholic and youngest person elected p ...

Background

Paul B. Fay Jr was born on July 8, 1918, in San Francisco, California. Fay Jr attended The Thacher School in Ojai,

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

, and later

Stanford University Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University, is a Private university, private research university in Stanford, California, United States. It was founded in 1885 by railroad magnate Leland Stanford (the eighth ...

. After graduating from Stanford in 1941, Fay worked for his father's construction firm, Fay Improvement Co, a Bay-area paving contractor, and enlisted in the

U.S. Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is the world's most powerful navy with the largest displacement, at 4.5 million tons in 2021. It has the world's largest aircraft ...

after the bombing of

Pearl Harbor Pearl Harbor is an American lagoon harbor on the island of Oahu, Hawaii, west of Honolulu. It was often visited by the naval fleet of the United States, before it was acquired from the Hawaiian Kingdom by the U.S. with the signing of the Reci ...

in December 1941. Fay attended

Officer Candidate School An officer candidate school (OCS) is a military school which trains civilians and Enlisted rank, enlisted personnel in order for them to gain a Commission (document), commission as Commissioned officer, officers in the armed forces of a country. H ...

and was assigned to

PT boat A PT boat (short for patrol torpedo boat) was a motor torpedo boat used by the United States Navy in World War II. It was small, fast, and inexpensive to build, and it was valued for its maneuverability and speed. However, PT boats were hampe ...

training at Melville, Rhode Island, where

was his instructor. They were assigned to the same base in the South Pacific, though they were not on the same boat. Fay received a Bronze Star during his war service as second in command of PT 167 during which the boat was disabled by a torpedo that was dropped by a Japanese plane, piercing the hull below the water line but failing to explode. After his war service, Fay returned to the United States and rejoined his father's company. On October 5, 1946, he married Anita Marcus of

Mill Valley, California Mill Valley is a city in Marin County, California, United States, located about north of San Francisco via the Golden Gate Bridge and from Napa Valley. The population was 14,231 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. Mill Valley is lo ...

. They had 3 children: Katherine Fay, Paul Fay III, and Sally Fay Cottingham. Paul Fay and Kennedy became close friends, and Fay worked on Kennedy's early campaigns for the

U.S. House of Representatives The United States House of Representatives is a chamber of the bicameral United States Congress; it is the lower house, with the U.S. Senate being the upper house. Together, the House and Senate have the authority under Article One of th ...

and the

U.S. Senate The United States Senate is a chamber of the bicameral United States Congress; it is the upper house, with the U.S. House of Representatives being the lower house. Together, the Senate and House have the authority under Article One of the ...

, and also on his campaign for U.S. President. Paul Fay was an usher at JFK's wedding. On Kennedy's election as president, Fay was nominated and served as Undersecretary of the Navy over the objections of Defense Secretary

Robert McNamara Robert Strange McNamara (; June 9, 1916 – July 6, 2009) was an American businessman and government official who served as the eighth United States secretary of defense from 1961 to 1968 under presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson ...

and then as Acting

Secretary of the Navy The Secretary of the Navy (SECNAV) is a statutory officer () and the head (chief executive officer) of the Department of the Navy, a military department within the United States Department of Defense. On March 25, 2025, John Phelan was confirm ...

in November 1963 while Kennedy was

U.S. President The president of the United States (POTUS) is the head of state and head of government of the United States. The president directs the Federal government of the United States#Executive branch, executive branch of the Federal government of t ...

. He resigned effective November 28, 1963, following Kennedy's assassination on November 22, 1963; however he remained undersecretary of the Navy until 1965. In 1966, he wrote the best-seller ''The Pleasure of His Company'' about Kennedy. The Fay Improvement Company was sold in 1967 and Fay founded William Hutchinson & Co, an investment research firm. He was a director of Vestaur Securities and First American Financial, and was a Trustee of the Naval War College Foundation and of Mount St. Joseph-St. Elizabeth of San Francisco.

Personal life

After suffering from

Alzheimer's disease Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a neurodegenerative disease and the cause of 60–70% of cases of dementia. The most common early symptom is difficulty in remembering recent events. As the disease advances, symptoms can include problems wit ...

for many years, Paul Burgess Fay Jr died at his home in Woodside, California on September 23, 2009. He and his wife Anita Fay had three children: Paul Fay III, Katherine Fay, and Sally Fay Cottingham.

Book

* Fay, Paul B. Jr. ''The Pleasure of His Company.'' New York: Harper & Row, 1966.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Fay, Paul B. 1918 births 2009 deaths Deaths from Alzheimer's disease in California Deaths from dementia in California Stanford University alumni Politicians from San Francisco Writers from San Francisco Military personnel from California United States secretaries of the navy United States Navy officers United States Navy personnel of World War II United States Under Secretaries of the Navy People from Woodside, California The Thacher School alumni Burials at Holy Cross Cemetery (Colma, California)