Bro. John Wheeler Fairfax III, FSC's Obituary
John W. Fairfax, FSC, passed away peacefully at the retirement community of Christian Brothers on the campus of Saint Paul’s School in Covington, LA, on December 26, 2023. Brother John was 96 years old. He was born on August 8, 1927, in New Orleans - the son of the late John Wheeler Fairfax, Jr., and Marie-Celeste Villere’.
Brother John is survived by his sister Mary Virginia Fairfax-Bernard, wife of the late Joseph Grima Bernard; his nieces: Marcelle Grima Bernard and Marie Celeste Bernard-Bitchatch (Tom); his two nephews: John “Jeff” Fairfax Bernard (Erin) and Joseph Grima Bernard, Jr. (Seunghee); and two great nieces and one great nephew.
Brother John first came to Saint Paul’s School in 1934 as a third grader. On completing his elementary education in 1940, John went to the De La Salle Junior Novitiate in Lafayette, LA., to complete his secondary education. In 1944 he entered the Novitiate in Lafayette and received the religious habit on August 14, 1944. After a year of religious studies, he attended St. Michael’s College in Santa Fe, NM, and received a B.A. degree in 1952. Brother John went on to earn three master’s degrees: an M.A. in Linguistics from LSU (1964), an M.R.E. in Theology from St. Thomas University in Houston (1974), and an M.Ed. in Special Education from Tulane University (1980).
Brother John had numerous teaching experiences throughout the New Orleans - Santa Fe Province. He taught at Mullen High School, Denver, CO (1946); Landry Memorial High School, Lake Charles, LA (1949); and Instituto Regiomontano, Monterrey, Mexico, (1952). While in Mexico, John contracted polio and returned to New Orleans to recuperate, but he never let the braces and crutches he carried for the rest of his life deter him from serving his students in the classroom, on the sidelines of ballgames, or in leadership roles within the Christian Brothers. In 1955, he began teaching in the Juniorate High School in Lafayette where he was once a student himself and served as secretary to the Provincial.
In August of 1962, he began his longest teaching journey at Archbishop Rummel High as Assistant Principal and later from 1968 to 1979 as Principal. At Rummel, he was known for his photographic memory of his numerous students. He inspired many students there.
With his master’s degree in special education, John moved to De La Salle High School where he began a program for special education students (1979). Having taught briefly at the former St. Peter’s College in New Iberia in the 1950s, John returned to Catholic High, New Iberia, in 1983; and for the next ten years, he served as a teacher, Director of Vocations for the NO-SF Province, Auxiliary Provincial Visitor, and then as the founder and director of the special education program at Catholic High. In 1993, John returned to Archbishop Rummel HS as Alumni Director and Director of the Brothers’ Community.
At the age of 76, Brother John “retired” and came to Saint Paul’s as a member of the Retirement Community of Christian Brothers, where he continued to join SPS students at school Masses and ball games and maintained treasured relationships with generations of former students from New Iberia, New Orleans, and Metairie.
The Brothers are grateful to all those who helped care for Brother John - especially our nurses, CNAs, and cooks, and the nurses and staff at Notre Dame Hospice, as well as family members, friends, and former students who faithfully visited, called, and wrote to John throughout his twenty years at Saint Paul’s.
In one of his Meditations, St. La Salle wrote, “Oh! What joy a Brother will have when he sees a great number of his students in possession of eternal happiness, for which they are indebted to him by the grace of Jesus Christ. What a sharing of joy there will be between the teacher and his students!” What joy Brother John must be experiencing as he joins his parents, St. John Baptiste De La Salle, and the thousands of students he has taught and for whom he has cared – for nearly eighty years.
Services for Brother John will be held on Saturday, January 6, 2024, in Our Lady of Peace Chapel on the Saint Paul’s School campus in Covington, LA. Visitation will be held from 10:00 to 11:00 AM, with Mass of the Resurrection at 11:00 AM, followed by inurnment at Saint Joseph’s Abbey, St. Benedict, LA. In lieu of flowers, donations may be sent in memory of Brother John to: The Saint La Salle Auxiliary, 104 W. 11th Ave., Covington, LA 70433 / SLSA-Membership-Form.pdf (delasalle.org). Please Share a Memory on the Tribute Wall at www.ejfieldingfh.com.
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