Jon Wells Fay died Wednesday, February 3, at White Horse Village in Newtown Square. He was 89.
Jon was born in Pittsburgh, the son of Katherine Harris and Frank Wells Fay II. He was the second child of six and the oldest of five boys.
Jon graduated from Phillips Exeter Academy in 1950 and from Brown University in 1954. At Brown, while earning a degree in business, he played football and lacrosse, and wrestled. After college, he joined the Marine Corps and graduated from Officer Candidates School. He then served overseas after the Korean War. After leaving the military, Jon began his career in the steel industry, attending night school and obtaining a degree in metallurgy from the University of Pittsburgh.
On December 1, 1961, at age 31, Jon married 22-year-old Inger Mielche, whom he had met in Denmark just three months earlier. Between the time they established their first home in Chatham Village in Pittsburgh, and their final one at White Horse Village in Newtown Square, they moved across the country and back again, building their life and their family. Jon’s career would take them to Illinois, California, Indiana, and Ohio, then back to Pittsburgh, then on to New Jersey, and finally to Wallingford. Jon retired at the young age of 83 in order to focus more on his golf game.
Always an accomplished athlete and competitor, over time Jon became more drawn to social sports like tennis, paddle, squash, and golf, and to games like cards, darts, and horseshoes. He simply loved to play and to be with people. Even at 89, Jon could be found on the bocce pitch with his Danzig Court team.
Jon is lovingly remembered and survived by his amazing wife of 59 years, Inger; two brothers, Terry and Bill; three children, Erik (Karen Louise) Fay, Michael (Kathi) Fay, and Jenifer (Vince) Reeve. Jon was Farfar to Eva and Hanna, and to Ari, Eli, and Lucy; he was Morfar to Maxwell and Bjorn; and he was Uncle Jon to dozens of family members around the globe: the Fays, Fursts, and Mielches. Jon was preceded in death by his older sister, Elinor Furst of Swarthmore, and by his younger brothers, James and Michael Fay.
