Henry A. Fairbank, 92, died on Thursday, January 13, 2011 after a brief illness, surrounded by his family.
He was a professor emeritus of the Physics Department at Duke University, serving as Chairman of the Department from 1962 to 1973; he retired in 1988.
Henry was born on November 9, 1918, in Lewistown, Montana, the third child of five to Sam and Helen Fairbank. In 1930, his family moved to Seattle, Wash. He and his four siblings attended Whitman College in Walla Walla, Wash., where Henry met his wife of 67 years, Martha E. Edmonds. Following their wedding on June 17, 1943, they moved to New Haven, Conn., where he had already begun his studies for a Ph.D. in Physics. After graduating, he joined the Manhattan Project, the Allied project during World War II to develop the first atomic bomb. Henry and Martha drove across country to Los Alamos, N.M., which was at that time identified only as a post office box in Santa Fe. There they began their family with the birth of their first child, Mary.
After the War, Martha and Henry returned to Yale, where Henry joined the Department of Physics. In 1954, he received a master's degree following studies as a Guggenheim Fellow at Oxford University. His work in low temperature physics involved experimental research on liquid helium-3. One of his graduate students was David Lee, who with Douglas D. Osheroff and Robert C. Richardson, won the Nobel Prize in 1996 for their work on superfluid helium-3. Lee credits Henry for suggesting the cooling method that enabled their Nobel-winning discovery. In 1962, Henry was recruited to be the chairman of the Physics Department at Duke University. His distinguished work in physics has been honored by election as a Fellow to the American Physical Society and the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and with an honorary degree from Whitman College.
When they came to Duke in 1962, Henry and Martha became and remained devoted Duke basketball fans, attending all home games of their beloved Blue Devils, both men and women. They were also avid runners and competed in their age categories in many Masters Tournaments all over the country and abroad between 1975 and 1989. When Henry was 59, he ran the Boston Marathon.
Despite his many professional accomplishments, there was nothing in this world that gave him more joy and satisfaction than his family. He is survived by his wife, Martha E. Fairbank, his two sisters, Ruth Roberts of San Bernardino, Calif. and Janet Thompson of Bainbridge Island, Wash.; his brother-in-law, Jack Harding of Bainbridge Island, Wash.; his sister-in-law, Anna Edmonds of Bainbridge Island, Wash.; his three children and their spouses, Mary and Barney O'Meara of Sperryville, Va.; Alan Fairbank and Cheryl Wilcox of Guilford, Conn.; and Liz and Bruce Kuniholm of Durham. His seven grandchildren and their spouses include Jonathan Kuniholm and Michele Quinn of Durham, Erin Kuniholm and Jason Buerkle of Portland, Ore., Patrick and Wendy O'Meara of Eldoret, Kenya; Timothy O'Meara and Rebecca Kolsky of Seattle, Wash.; Leah and Ben Coakley of Astoria, N.Y.; Chelsea Fairbank of San Diego, Calif., and Ben Fairbank of Chatham, Mass. His great-grandchildren include Sam Kuniholm of Durham and Lily Mae and Linus Henry Buerkle of Portland, Ore.
Henry's ashes will be interred in the Columbarium at the Pilgrim United Church of Christ, 3011 Academy Road, Durham, where Martha and Henry were members for 48 years. A memorial service will be held on March 12, 2011, at 2 p.m., at the Pilgrim United Church of Christ. In lieu of flowers, contributions may be made in Henry's honor to the Pilgrim United Church of Christ.