David Lee Fair of Harvard, Massachusetts, passed away peacefully at home on Monday, September 24, 2018 after a heroic four-year odyssey with cancer.

David was born on January 31, 1958 in a US Army Hospital in Ota, Japan. He grew up in Brighton, Colorado 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 an MBA in 1984.

A Thunderbird classmate and future best man, Matt Haller, introduced David to Intel Corporation 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 School in four years. From 1999 until he was too ill to work, David worked as a consultant with numerous high-tech startups, and during his cancer battle, 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, David is survived by his parents, Dr. Ron & Patricia Fair, and brothers Rod (Monica), and Lyle (Karri). He also leaves his parents-in-law, Professor James and Virginia Wei, brother-in-law Alexander Wei, sister-in-law Christina Wei (Daniel O’Leary), 3 nieces and 4 nephews. David was predeceased by his nephew Grant.

His family is grateful to all of the doctors, nurses and other caregivers who befriended and 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 5 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 HealthAlliance Home Health and Hospice.

David had a green burial at Mt. Auburn Cemetery in Cambridge, Massachusetts. David’s life will be celebrated at his home in Harvard, Massachusetts on Saturday, September 29, 2018 from 12:00pm to 4:00pm. There will be a memory wall at the celebration for those who wish to share memories in writing and photographs.

Memorial donations in David’s honor can be made to the MGH Cancer Center at https://giving.massgeneral.org/cancer/donate/.