Caltech History Professor Peter W. Fay Dies

Peter W. Fay, professor emeritus of history at the California Institute of Technology and author of The Opium War, 1840-1842, died Sunday night, January 18, 2004, at his home in Sierra Madre after a long illness. He was 79.

A faculty member at Caltech from 1955 until his retirement in 1997, Fay was an authority on China and India, and wrote numerous papers, books, and book chapters on the history of these regions. In addition to The Opium War, which won several prizes following its publication in 1975, Fay also wrote The Forgotten Army: India's Armed Struggle for Independence, 1942-1945.

Fay earned his bachelor's degree from Harvard University, graduating summa cum laude in 1947. After attending Oxford University as a Rhodes Scholar and earning a second bachelor's degree, he returned to Harvard for his doctorate in history. During World War II he served with the U.S. Army in Italy as a lieutenant in the field artillery.

Fay taught for four years at Williams College in the early 1950s, and spent two years as a visiting professor at the Indian Institute of Technology in Kanpur, from 1964 to 1966, where he helped develop the humanities program. It was in Kanpur that Fay developed the love of Indian history that shaped his career.

Fay was a member of the Pacific Historical Review's board of directors from 1975 to 1977, and a member of the Polytechnic School's board of trustees from 1983 to 1988. At Caltech he won the Associated Students of Caltech award for excellence in teaching in 1979 and again in 1990, and served on the faculty board and various faculty committees. He also served on the presidential search committee to replace Caltech president Harold Brown, who left the institute to become President Carter's secretary of defense.

He is survived by his wife, Mariette Robertson Fay; sons, Todor, Jonathan, and Benjamin; daughters, Jennifer and Lisa Fay Matthiessen; and seven grandchildren.

In lieu of flowers, the family asks that memorial donations be made either to the American Friends Service Committee, or to the Spastic Center in Kanpur, India (Susan Davis in Caltech's Division of Humanities and Social Sciences may be contacted at MS 228-77, Pasadena, CA 91125, for the address).