Obituary: Robert Joseph (Bob) Fahey

Robert Joseph (Bob) Fahey died peacefully on Saturday, April 20, 2013.

Fahey was 81. He died after a short illness.

Fahey was born in Belmont on Jan. 31, 1932, the fifth of six children to Michael Patrick Fahey and Dorothy Sughrue Fahey who lived at 3 Essex St.

He graduated from Belmont High School and earned his Bachelor of Science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1953, and from Harvard’s Advanced Management Program.

He married Mary Elizabeth Brine in 1957 in Newton, settling shortly after marriage in Belmont, where they had five children.  

Fahey served two years as an intelligence officer in the U. S. Air Force before beginning his career at Arthur D. Little and Company, working with a diverse group of clients including Spanish Rail, Aer Lingus, American Airlines, Eastern Airlines, the National Football League Players Union, the Society of Jesuits, Exxon, General Motors Company and the U.S. Congress.

During that time, Fahey published two books, "Congress Needs Help" in 1966, a study of Congressional reform originally prepared for television by NBC news anchor David Brinkley and "Computer Science and Management Dynamics," in 1969.

For a number of years, he vacationed on Prouts Neck, Maine exploring Maine’s coastal cruising areas in his Tartan 30 sailboat.

In 1978, Fahey accepted a position with The Penn Central Corporation and moved his family to Rye, NY. Later, he worked for Sea-Land Corporation before becoming President and Chairman of the Board of Stuart Dean Company, today the country’s preeminent restoration and maintenance company that specialize in the restoration and upkeep of metal, stone, wood, glass and grout on buildings, retail stores, institutions, restaurants and homes.

Shortly after moving to Rye, he joined the American Yacht Club, where he continued to engage in his love of sailing with his catboat Magnanimity, becoming familiar with the waters of Long Island Sound.

As a lifelong Roman Catholic, he devoted a considerable amount of his time in seminary renewal, both at Mundelien College in Chicago, in long-term planning for the ordinary of the archdiocese there, and at Weston Jesuit School of Theology in Cambridge, where he served as chairman of the Board of Trustees. He had also been a trustee of the Boston Theological Institute. He was inducted into the Knights of Malta on January of 1993, and made several pilgrimages to Lourdes.

Fahey was preceded in death by his older sister, Barbara Kelley, and his older brothers Laurie, Don, and Dick.

He is survived by his sister, Elizabeth Cahill, of Belmont.

He is also survived by his beloved wife of 55 years, Mary Elizabeth Brine Fahey, as well as his children and in-laws Michelle Fahey Ganon and Bill Ganon of La Jolla, California; Christopher Robert Fahey and Marybeth Wallace Fahey of Wyckoff, New Jersey; Timothy William Fahey and Eileen Gillespie Fahey of Guilford, Connecticut; Matthew Brine Fahey and Missie Kostel Fahey of Rye, New York; and Constance Fahey Dingle and Christopher Dingle of Toronto, Canada.

He also leaves behind a dozen grandchildren – Meredith, Carolyn and Robert Benjamin Ganon; Michael and Brendan Fahey; George Fahey; Quinn, Peter, and Harry Fahey; and Cordelia, Conrad, and Charles Dingle.

A Mass of Christian Burial was held at Rye’s Church of the Resurrection on Wednesday, April 24. In accordance with his wishes, in lieu of flowers, donations may be made in his memory to the American Diabetes Association.