Abbott Fay's Website - Is it a RED TIE day?

Abbott Fay died today, March 12, 2009

rfay — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 01:30:17 +0000

Abbott Fay died today, peacefully, after a stroke hit him three days ago. He never wanted to get established in the medical system (he'd never had another medical emergency in his life) and he wanted to avoid outliving his ability to be comfortable with his body and his mind. We will miss him as you will, and we respect him as you do.

There will be no memorial service and no other public gathering (at his request); If anybody wants to organize a party in his honor, I'll come.

-Randy Fay
March 12, 2009

Contact

rfay — Thu, 24 Mar 2016 00:09:12 +0000

For questions or comments, contact Randy Fay at randy@randyfay.com.

Abbott's world view impacted my future journey in life

Fri, 18 Sep 2009 04:13:11 +0000

Abbott was one of my favorite professors at Western State College ('71). He was my world history professor--I'll never forget his description of the world view of one of the hundreds... of thousands of street people in Calcutta who lived in cardboard boxes with a small cooker their entire lives. He made me uneasy with his description of how that person survived day to day and how that impacted what his expectations would be of the future. He led the "Quigley Club" of very eclectic group of students who met early in the morning and took us to the Trappist monks in Aspen where he introduced me to Thomas Merton when I asked how/why these monks would live such a solitary life. His worldview and teaching style were instrumental in my traveling the world once I graduated from WSC. I joined the Peace Corp and spent 3 years in Guatemala after which I worked with innumerable organizations promoting overseas development throughout the world. After 10 years with MAP International I recently to became the Director of Development with Make a Wish Foundation International. I've never forgotten Abbott's unique style of teaching in which he asks more questions then he requires memorization of facts. I didn't realize that he was such a prolific writer and plan to purchase several of his books.

Mark Walker, CFRE, Scottsdale, Arizona

Photos from the last decade

rfay — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 20:52:41 +0000

Here is a slideshow of photos of Abbott from the last decade or so.

Remembrances in the press

rfay — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 20:30:44 +0000

Several papers published nice reflections on Abbott Fay's life:

in the Grand Junction Daily Sentinel, March 13, 2009
In the the Gunnison Country Times (10MB PDF)
In the Western Slope Watchdog (1.7MB pdf)

Newly discovered Abbott Fay books!

rfay — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 04:37:23 +0000

In the sad but memorable time of going through my dad's stuff, we found two books that we had forgotten all about, but at least one is extremely timely!. I thought you might like to read at least one of these, so I scanned both and they're here for download in PDF form.

The first book, Getting Rich in a Financial Depression, was self-published in 1979, when Dad was convinced that the big one was immediately on its way. It's loads of fun to read, and so pertinent to today. We think he waited all his life for the big one to hit, and finally checked out when he had convinced it had come. But his book was 30 years early, maybe. We seem to remember that his intent was to sell it through magazine ads, and it didn't make him rich after all. The significant leftover stock was surreptitiously left in a dumpster somewhere in the midwest.

The second book, Writing Good History Research Papers was a distillation of all the things he wanted to tell his students about that subject. It will be interesting to students who had to follow all his rules, but might not be palatable to the majority.

Anyway, here they are for your reading pleasure:

Getting Rich in a Financial Depression (69 MB, PDF format)
Writing Good History Research Papers (46 MB, PDF format)

(If you're a former student, you may remember Abbott's essay What is a Student? as well.)

Remembering Abbott Fay and Western’s National Energy Conservation Challenge

Wed, 18 Mar 2009 22:33:09 +0000

There’s the sense in the valley, and the world, that thanks to Al Gore and several thousand climate scientists we are finally waking up to the realization that the world has some energy problems. But the recent death of former Western history professor Abbott Fay reminded me again that we have really known about this situation for more than thirty years, and that Western State College students, with guidance from Professor Fay, made a valiant effort in the 1977-78 school year to awaken not just the valley but the whole nation to the emerging energy crisis.
That was Western’s National Energy Conservation Challenge (NECC): a handful of Western students – from the college in the place often “celebrated” as coldest on the continent – challenged every college and university in the United States to try to conserve more energy than Western would conserve during the 1977-78 school year. Through the fall and winter of that year, 181 institutions, from the Universities of Wisconsin and New Hampshire to the Universities of Southern Mississippi and Southern Louisiana, embraced the challenge to one degree or another. And probably none of them had more plain fun doing it than the participating students at Western.
Context is important. In the mid-1970s, America’s oil production peaked and went into its ongoing irreversible decline (even if we do ANWR, offshore drilling and shale oil), the oil-producing countries of the Middle East and elsewhere formed OPEC, and the price of gasoline doubled and redoubled several times.
For Abbott Fay, it was what educators call a “teaching moment.” As a historian he had authored “Mountain Academia,” a history of the college up to 1960 – “a history of experiences and emotions rather than a chronological account of occurrences,” in his words, and he went on to say that “what was to happen in the next half century (which we are just completing) would be the true measure” of the college and its “wisdom or folly.” He believed that jumping on the emerging energy situation was a positive way for the college to take a leadership role in helping the nation move in an important new direction.
But he was a teacher first, and approached the task by raising student awareness and inspiration. He told a “Top O’the World” reporter in April 1977, “I want the students to be able to use this when they leave the college. Instead of talking about what they are going to do, I want them to have done something.” This is an “experiential learning” model more at home in today’s Environmental Studies program at Western than it was in the 1970s when the college was still playing “in loco parentis” and having bed check for co-eds.
NECC emerged in the fall semester of 1977 as a creative mix of the sensible, outrageous and downright silly. The students got Governor Richard Lamm to come speak at their opening rally; later in the year they organized an Energy Seminar that brought speakers like population growth analyst Albert Bartlett from the University of Colorado; a Mobil Oil executive who said – in 1978! – that, much as he loved oil, solar energy was going to be the way of the future; Dr. Jerry Kowal, still at Western, on ways to get real about energy efficiency at home; and a lawyer and a legislator from Colorado advocating a General Assembly bill affirming an individuals’ property right to access to sunlight.
But NECC also had an “Absurdity Committee” that probably did more to get the college on the national map than anything before or since. Underwear were frequently featured in the “Top” that year – long underwear. NECC hosted a “Human Powered Dance” in February 1978 that featured a “Long Johns and Sweaters Fashion Show” and creative attempts to produce enough electricity to power a rock band. A playground merry-go-round that required six pushers was hitched to a generator that was supposed to crank out the kilowatt of electricty the band needed, while another six people rode bicycles in shifts to power the lights for the dance. The bicycles worked; the merry-go-round didn’t and the band had to plug in. But the fashion show was a success.
Two NECC students tried to address the affordable-energy-and-housing problem by wintering in a tipi pitched in front of Quigley Hall, through what turned out to be typically rough Gunnison winter. They prevailed, although they lamented “the long dash to the Quigley bathrooms.”
Predictably, these shenanigans got state and even national (CBS) television coverage while the serious events didn’t; even radio commentator Paul Harvey picked up on a NECC idea involving roosters for alarm clocks, and something about “Buckminster Beaver” that never did get properly explained in the “Top.”
Did NECC achieve its goal? The short answer is “no”. Western got off to a good start in 1977, reducing campus energy consumption from the previous year by 20 percent in August and September, but after that they were hampered by the fact that it was a much rougher winter than 1976-77 had been, and ended up in pretty much a wash – probably a modest victory considering the weather.
Worse, probably no more than 10 percent of the student body had really gotten involved in the process of consciousness-raising; most remained typically impervious to the challenge. A “Top” story checking in with some of the major universities that had accepted the challenge found similar problems with involvement.
Basically, NECC was ahead of the times – along with President Jimmy Carter, and Professor Abbott Fay – a Western figure worth remembering, along with Western’s National Energy Conservation Challenge of 1977-78, which set an early benchmark at the college for creative investment in a future we are just now getting back to.
***
- from George Sibley, longtime friend and admirer of Abbott

Big Footsteps

Wed, 18 Mar 2009 21:36:02 +0000

I stumbled into Abbott's philosophy 100 course at Mesa Junior College in Grand Junction, which had about 425 students. None of us knew what "philosophy" was, since it's not offered in high schools. Abbott was a historian, and didn't know too much about philosophy, but was assigned the course. Abbott was the greatest "natural" teacher I have ever known. He posed philosophical questions and issues that had us climbing over the desks in vigorous debates. It was the luckiest day of my life and started a transformation from naive football "jock" to a lifetime of philosophy and a career of 35 years as a philosophy professor at the University of Southern Colorado. We kept up with each other over the years. Along with his multi-talented and amazing wife Joan, he changed thousands of lives for the better. Humorous, quizzical, eccentric (like the rest of us), eclectic, opinionated, caring, fun, worldly, endlessly curious, unstoppable even after "retirement", he was simply astounding. For so many of us, he was mentor, model, and icon. Larimore ("Larry" "Nick") Nicholl

My Brief History WIth Mr. Fay

rosiemcgraw — Wed, 02 Jan 2008 05:51:52 +0000

I was a student of yours in the early 1970's, you will always be Mr. Fay to your face and Abbott in all other cases. I wanted to cut off your red tie on the days you wore them, I hated those ties. I took all three Developement of Civilization, Colorado History and a self-study Philosophy class from you. I had to write my first term paper for you. I always wanted to get an A in your class and only got B's. I did a self-discipline program with you for one quarter. It was one of the best things I did as a student.

You were a support to me when I wrote my first paper for you. My first ever. It was only three pages long and that opening sentence was hell but with your help I got it done.

I also got into a little trouble with some members of my history class being in my dorm room studying when they shouldn't have been and you helped me out. I don't know if I ever thanked you for that or if that is even something you would remember, but I do and it still means alot that you stood up for me.

I learned more from you than just history or philosophy. I learned about thinking and being able to support my beliefs. I learned to always be a student, maybe not your ideal student, but one who likes to examine and learn new things. I learned that what I get out is what I put in.

I enjoyed our disagreements in my journal and your comments written in my blue books. I liked knowing the answers on tests. I always enjoyed your class. You are one of the best things about my time at Western. Thank you.

Podcast and Video: Remarkable Murderers of Colorado

rfay — Sun, 18 Nov 2007 01:09:59 +0000

33:06 minutes (30.3 MB)

Abbott Fay: Remarkable Murderers of Colorado from Randy Fay on Vimeo.

Who would think Abbott Fay would have his own podcast? Well, here's his Palisade Library lecture on "Remarkable Murderers of Colorado", given November 17, 2007. You can also watch the video here.