Robert H. Fairbank's Obituary
Robert Holmes Fairbank, a lifelong resident of St. Michaels, died April 1, 2015, at his home. He was 86. Born April 11, 1928, he was the son of the late Milton Holmes Fairbank and Cornelia Langrell Fairbank of St. Michaels. He graduated from St. Michaels High School in 1945 and attended State Teachers College, Salisbury and Columbia University. He served in the army for two years during the Korean War and was stationed in Alaska for 14 months. Employed for 37 years at the Easton division of Waverly Press, Inc., he became Waverly’s corporate director of quality assurance and training coordinator. He was also a certified facilitator for the International Association of Quality Circles. Following retirement Bob served as a board member and docent for the St. Mary’s Square Museum for a number of years. In 1988, he authored a few pages of recollections of growing up in St. Michaels entitled The Way It Used to Be. Book reviewer John Goodspeed had this to say: “Fairbank is probably a natural writer. His prose is concise, fluent, occasionally clever. I wish, in fact, that his book were longer than it is.†In recent years he taught/played chess at the St. Michaels Community Center. His greatest retirement joy was describing his boyhood recollections of St. Michaels and discussing the mysteries of the universe with his youngest grandson, Ethan, whose mom died a few months after he was born. He is survived by his wife, Lorraine, whom he married in 1953; three children, Glenn (Shirley) of Easton, Eric (Lisa) of Harwood, and Holly (Tommy) of St. Michaels; three grandchildren, Ryan, Emily, and Ethan; two great-grandchildren, Kiersten and Kole; and a number of very pleasant friends and neighbors. Services and burial will be private. The family asks that donations in his memory be made to the St. Michaels Fire Department or the St. Michaels Community Center. Arrangements are by the Ostrowski Funeral Home, St. Michaels .
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