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

United States Secretary of the Navy The secretary of the Navy (or 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 (component organization) within the United States D ...

in November 1963, and a close confidant of President

John F. Kennedy John Fitzgerald Kennedy (May 29, 1917 – November 22, 1963), often referred to by his initials JFK and the nickname Jack, was an American politician who served as the 35th president of the United States from 1961 until his assassination i ...

Background

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

The Thacher School The Thacher School is an elite private co-educational boarding school in Ojai, California. Founded in 1889 as a boys' school, it is now the oldest co-educational boarding school in California. Girls were first admitted in 1977. The first co-ed gra ...

Ojai Ojai ( ; Chumash: ''’Awhaỳ'') is a city in Ventura County, California. Located in the Ojai Valley, it is northwest of Los Angeles and east of Santa Barbara. The valley is part of the east–west trending Western Transverse Ranges and is ...

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

, and later

Stanford University Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is consider ...

. 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 Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage of ...

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 Re ...

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. ...

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, valued for its maneuverability and speed but hampered at the beginning of the wa ...

training at

Melville, Rhode Island Melville is a census-designated place (CDP) in the towns of Middletown and Portsmouth in Newport County, Rhode Island, United States. It lies along the shore of Narragansett Bay. The population of the CDP was 1,320 at the 2010 census. The CDP i ...

, 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, 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 ...

. 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, often referred to as the House of Representatives, the U.S. House, or simply the House, is the lower chamber of the United States Congress, with the Senate being the upper chamber. Together they ...

and the

U.S. Senate The United States Senate is the upper chamber of the United States Congress, with the House of Representatives being the lower chamber. Together they compose the national bicameral legislature of the United States. The composition and powe ...

, 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 The Under Secretary of the Navy is the second-highest ranking civilian official in the United States Department of the Navy. The Under Secretary, called the "Under" in Pentagon slang, reports to the Secretary of the Navy (SECNAV). Before the cre ...

over the objections of Defense Secretary

Robert McNamara Robert Strange McNamara (; June 9, 1916 – July 6, 2009) was an American business executive and the eighth United States Secretary of Defense, serving from 1961 to 1968 under Presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson. He remains the Lis ...

and then as Acting

Secretary of the Navy The secretary of the Navy (or SECNAV) is a statutory officer () and the head (chief executive officer) of the Department of the Navy, a military department (component organization) within the United States Department of Defense. By law, the se ...

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 of America. The president directs the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States ...

. He resigned effective November 28, 1963, following

Kennedy's assassination John F. Kennedy, the 35th president of the United States, was assassinated on Friday, November 22, 1963, at 12:30 p.m. CST in Dallas, Texas, while riding in a presidential motorcade through Dealey Plaza. Kennedy was in the vehicle wit ...

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 The Naval War College Foundation was established in 1969 and chartered under the tax laws of the United States as a non-profit 501(c)(3) charitable corporation in the state of Rhode Island to provide private financial support for the activities of t ...

and of Mount St. Joseph-St. Elizabeth of San Francisco.

Personal life

After suffering from

Alzheimer's disease Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a neurodegeneration, neurodegenerative disease that usually starts slowly and progressively worsens. It is the cause of 60–70% of cases of dementia. The most common early symptom is difficulty in short-term me ...

for many years, Paul Burgess Fay Jr died at his home in

Woodside, California Woodside is a small incorporated town in San Mateo County, California, United States, on the San Francisco Peninsula. Woodside is among the wealthiest communities in the United States, home to many technology billionaires and investment manager ...

on September 23, 2009. He and his wife Anita Fay had three children: Paul Fay III, Katherine Fay, and Sally Fay Cottingham.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Fay, Paul B. 1918 births 2009 deaths Deaths from Alzheimer's disease 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)