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Created page with "{{Infobox officeholder |name=Albert Bel Fay, Sr. |nationality=American |office=Republican National Committeeman from Texas..."
{{Infobox officeholder
|name=Albert Bel Fay, Sr.
|nationality=[[United States|American]]
|office=[[Republican Party|Republican]] National Committeeman from [[Texas]]
|term_start=1960
|term_end=1969
|preceded=
|succeeded=
|office2=United States Ambassador to Trinidad and Tobago
|term_start2=1976
|term_end2=1977
|birth_date=February 26, 1913
|birth_place=[[New Orleans]], [[Louisiana]], USA |death_date=Feburary 29, 1992 (aged 79)
|death_place=Cuernavaca, Morelos, [[Mexico]]
|resting_place=Glenwood Cemetery in [[Houston, Texas|Houston]], Texas
|occupation=[[Business]]man<br>
[[United States Army]] in [[World War II]]
|residence=Houston, Texas
|religion=[[Presbyterian]]
|spouse=Homoiselle Randall Haden Fay (married 1935-1990, her death)
|children=Three children, including<br>
Albert Fay, Jr.<br>
'''Parents''': <br>
Charles Spencer and Marie Dorothy Bel Fay
|alma_mater=San Jacinto (Houston) High School
[[Yale University]]}}
'''Albert Bel Fay, Sr.''' (February 26, 1913 – February 29, 1992), was an [[United States|American]] [[business]]man who served briefly as the United States Ambassador to Trinidad and Tobago and was a [[Republican Party|Republican]] [[politician]], whose involvement with the pary began in 1952 with the first presidential campaign of [[Dwight D. Eisenhower]].<ref name=bio>{{cite web|url=https://tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/ffa20|title=[[Albert Bel Fay|Fay, Albert Bel, Sr.]]|publisher=''The Handbook of Texas'' on-line|author=Mary Smith Fay|accessdate=October 25, 2019}}</ref>
==Background==
Fay was born in [[New Orleans]], [[Louisiana]], to Charles Spencer Fay and the former Marie Dorothy Bel, hence his middle name. His father was an officer of the Southern Pacific Railroad. The family relocated to [[Houston, Texas|Houston]], where Fay graduated from San Jacinto High School. In 1935, he married the former Homoiselle Randall Haden (August 26, 1908 – February 6, 1990). They were the parents of three children, including Albert Bel Fay, Jr. (born 1945), of Houston, an active Republican donor.<ref name=bio/>
In 1936, Fay obtained a bachelor's degree in geology from [[Yale University]] in [[New Haven]], [[Connecticut]]. At Yale, he was commissioned an ensign in the U.S. Naval Reserve. During [[World War II]], he commanded a submarine chaser in the [[Gulf of Mexico]] and the [[Atlantic Ocean]]. Later in the war, he was advanced to the rank of first lieutenant while serving in [[Okinawa]].<ref name=bio/>
==Extensive business interests==
In 1938, Fay and his brother, Ernest Fay (1914–1986), founded Seabrook Shipyard, which built submarine chasers and rescue boats during World War II. After the war, Fay operated various businesses in Texas and Louisiana, including shipbuilding and his Bel Oil Corporation.<ref name=bio/>
By 1972, his [[petroleum]] interests included holdings in several states as well as [[Canada]] and [[New Zealand]]. He also had [[real estate]] interests in [[Nicaragua]] and the [[Cayman Island]]s in the [[Caribbean Sea]]. At the time of his death, his business interests had diversified to include ranching, timber, marinas, and [[banking]].<ref name=bio/>
==GOP national committeeman, 1960-1969==
In 1952, Fay began precinct level work for the Republican Party of Texas. He supported Eisenhower,<ref name=bio/> a native Texan, having been born in Denison in 1890. Eisenhower was only the second [[Republican Party (United States)|GOP]] nominee since [[Reconstruction]] to have won the [[electoral vote]]s of Texas.
By 1960, Fay had become Republican national committeeman and an automatic member of the [[Republican National Committee]]. At the[1964 [[Republican National Convention]] in [[San Francisco]], [[California]], Fay served on the Credentials Committee.<ref>[[Jack Crichton]], ''The Republican-Democrat Political Campaigns in Texas in 1964,'' self-published, 2004, p. 24.</ref> In 1969, Fay lost his national committeeman's position about the time that the [[attorney]] William Merritt Steger (1920-2004) was elected state party chairman to succeed Peter O'Donnell of [[Dallas]]. Steger had been the unsuccessful Republican [[governor of Texas|gubernatorial]] candidate in 1960 and was later a long-serving U.S. District Court [[judge]] based in [[Tyler, Texas|Tyler]] in Smith County in east Texas.
==Running for Texas land commissioner==
In 1962 and 1966, Fay was the unsuccessful Republican nominee for Texas land commissioner. In the latter race he won the endorsement of the [[AFL-CIO]] executive board. He lost both races to popular [[Democratic Party|Democrat]] Gerald Anthony "Jerry" Sadler (1907-1982), who once had [[Governor|gubernatorial]] ambition. In the 1962 campaign, Fay hailed [[U.S. President]] [[John F. Kennedy]] for signing into law the establishment of the Padre Island National Seashore north of [[Brownsville]].<ref name=bio/>
In 1966, Fay supported President [[Lyndon B. Johnson]] in the establishment of the [[Guadalupe Mountains National Park]] in West Texas near the [[New Mexico]] border. Both acquisitions had long been strongly promoted by Democratic [[U. S. Senator]] [[Ralph Yarborough]]. Previously, Texas had only one national park: [[Big Bend National Park|Big Bend]] along the [[Rio Grande]] in the southwestern part of the state. Fay found himself allying with [[liberal]] Democrat Yarborough, whereas his opponent, Sadler, and the Texas Republican U. S. Senator [[John Tower]] were opposed to the additional park lands. Sadler took the view that the acquisition of lands from private individuals would mean less [[property tax]] revenues needed to provide the local share of financing of public schools as well as declining funds to the Texas Permanent School Fund.
No Republican was elected land commissioner until 1998, when David Dewhurst, later the lieutenant governor, won the position. Dewhurst succeeded long-time Land Commissioner Garry Mauro of [[Bryan, Texas|Bryan]] in Brazos County, who had first been elected in 1982.
==Gubernatorial primaries, 1972==
In 1972, Fay ran against five other candidates for the Republican gubernatorial nomination. He made it into the second primary but lost the nomination to then state Senator [[Henry C. Grover]], also of Houston and a staunch [[conservative]]. Grover was thereafter defeated in the [[general election]] by Democrat [[Dolph Briscoe]]. A third candidate was Ramsey Muñiz, nominee of the since-disbanded Hispanic Raza Unida Party. In the low-turnout runoff election, Grover received 37,842 votes (66.4 percent) to Fay's 19,166 (33.6 percent), according to ''Congressional Quarterly's Guide to U.S. Elections.''
In the primary campaign, Fay argued for another national park, this time in the Big Thicket of east Texas, a state park onMustang Island in the Gulf of Mexico, and a recreational area along Armand Bayou. He also urged the development of a comprehensive water plan and advocated reducing property taxes on the homes of the elderly. The state does not collect property taxes in Texas, but cities, counties, and school districts depend heavily on such revenues.<ref name=bio/>
==GOP financier and U.S. ambassador==
Fay served as chairman of his state's Republican finance committee, as a member of the national Republican finance committee (1968–1976), a member of the Texas Republican Executive Committee, and a member of the executive committee of the Republican National Committee. He was a delegate to three consecutive national conventions: 1960 in [[Chicago]], 1964 in [[San Francisco]], and 1968 in Miami Beach, [[Florida]]; he served as co-chairman of the state delegation in 1960 and vice chairman of the state delegation in 1964.<ref name=bio/>
In October 1969, U.S. President [[Richard M. Nixon]] appointed Fay to the 13-member board of governors overseeing the former Panama Canal Company. He retained that position until February 1976, when President [[Gerald Ford, named him ambassador to Trinidad and Tobago. He served in that capacity for over a year, until April 1977, some months after Democrat [[Jimmy Carter]] assumed the presidency.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://history.state.gov/departmenthistory/people/fay-albert-bel|title=Albert Bel Fay (1913-1992|publisher=Office of the Historian: U.S. State Department|accessdate=January 4, 2013}}</ref>
>Office of the Historian, U.S. Department of State. [http://history.state.gov/departmenthistory/people/fay-albert-bel ''Albert Bel Fay (1913-1992)'']. Retrieved January 4, 2013.</ref>
==Civic leadership and sportsmanship==
The ''Handbook of Texas'' lists Fay as a former director and president of the Houston Museum of Natural Science, a director of the American Brahman Breeders Association, a vice president of the Houston Branch of the English Speaking Union, and a member of the Yale University alumni board.<ref name=bio/>
According to ''The Handbook,'' he was also a licensed pilot and a yachtsman. He won the 5.5-meter world championship in [[Norway]], in 1983, when he defeated twenty-five other helmsmen from around the world. He was also a three-time winner of the Scandinavian Gold Cup and the United States Nationals. Fay served on the United States Olympic Yachting Committee, the [[United States Naval Academy]] Sailing Advisory Council, and the board of trustees of the Yale University Sailing Association.<ref name=bio/>
Fay is honored by the Albert Bel Fay Commodore's Trophy through the Texas Corinthian Yacht Club in Kemah, near Houston.
==Death and statement from first President Bush==
Fay died in Cuernavaca, the capital of the state of Morelos,, [[Mexico]]. He and Mrs. Fay are buried at Glenwood Cemetery in Houston. He was a [[Presbyterian]].
Then President and Mrs. [[George Herbert Walker Bush]] issued the following statement on Fay's death: "Albert was a close personal friend, and we will miss him greatly. He was a Texan through and through. He was a leader in building the Republican Party in Houston, starting in the early 1960s. Albert was a mentor who helped guide me in my early years in Texas politics, when getting Republicans elected was next to impossible. His service to the Republican Party has been invaluable."<ref>{{cite web|url=http://bushlibrary.tamu.edu/research/public_papers.php?id=4017&year=1992&month=3|title=Bush statement on death of Albert Bel Fay|publisher=George Bush Presidential Library and Museum|date=March 2, 1992|accessdate=October 25, 2019}}</ref>
George Bush Presidential Library and Museum: Public Papers - 1992 - March. [http://bushlibrary.tamu.edu/research/public_papers.php?id=4017&year=1992&month=3 ''Statement on the Death of Albert Bel Fay (1992-03-02)'']. Retrieved January 4, 2013.</ref>
==References==
{{reflist}}
*John R. Knaggs, ''Two-Party Texas: The John Tower Era'', 1961-1984 (Austin: Eakin Press, 1986).
*Roger M. Olien, ''From Token to Triumph: The Texas Republicans since 1920'' (Dallas: Southern Methodist University Press, 1982).
*''Who's Who in America'', 1980-81.
*http://politicalgraveyard.com/chrono/born-feb-26.html
*http://www.newsmeat.com/fec/bystate_detail.php?st=&zip=77007&last=FAY&first=ALBERT
*http://www.cr.nps.gov/history/online_books/pais/adhi4.htm
*http://www.tcyc.org/home/raceResults.html
{{Footer World Champions 5.5 Metre}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Fay, Albert Bel}}
[[Category:Texas]]
[[Category:Louisiana People]]
[[Category:Geologists]]
[[Category:Business People]]
[[Category:Politicians]]
[[Category:Republicans]]
[[Category: World War II]]
[[Category:United States Navy]]
[[Category: Presbyterians]]
|name=Albert Bel Fay, Sr.
|nationality=[[United States|American]]
|office=[[Republican Party|Republican]] National Committeeman from [[Texas]]
|term_start=1960
|term_end=1969
|preceded=
|succeeded=
|office2=United States Ambassador to Trinidad and Tobago
|term_start2=1976
|term_end2=1977
|birth_date=February 26, 1913
|birth_place=[[New Orleans]], [[Louisiana]], USA |death_date=Feburary 29, 1992 (aged 79)
|death_place=Cuernavaca, Morelos, [[Mexico]]
|resting_place=Glenwood Cemetery in [[Houston, Texas|Houston]], Texas
|occupation=[[Business]]man<br>
[[United States Army]] in [[World War II]]
|residence=Houston, Texas
|religion=[[Presbyterian]]
|spouse=Homoiselle Randall Haden Fay (married 1935-1990, her death)
|children=Three children, including<br>
Albert Fay, Jr.<br>
'''Parents''': <br>
Charles Spencer and Marie Dorothy Bel Fay
|alma_mater=San Jacinto (Houston) High School
[[Yale University]]}}
'''Albert Bel Fay, Sr.''' (February 26, 1913 – February 29, 1992), was an [[United States|American]] [[business]]man who served briefly as the United States Ambassador to Trinidad and Tobago and was a [[Republican Party|Republican]] [[politician]], whose involvement with the pary began in 1952 with the first presidential campaign of [[Dwight D. Eisenhower]].<ref name=bio>{{cite web|url=https://tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/ffa20|title=[[Albert Bel Fay|Fay, Albert Bel, Sr.]]|publisher=''The Handbook of Texas'' on-line|author=Mary Smith Fay|accessdate=October 25, 2019}}</ref>
==Background==
Fay was born in [[New Orleans]], [[Louisiana]], to Charles Spencer Fay and the former Marie Dorothy Bel, hence his middle name. His father was an officer of the Southern Pacific Railroad. The family relocated to [[Houston, Texas|Houston]], where Fay graduated from San Jacinto High School. In 1935, he married the former Homoiselle Randall Haden (August 26, 1908 – February 6, 1990). They were the parents of three children, including Albert Bel Fay, Jr. (born 1945), of Houston, an active Republican donor.<ref name=bio/>
In 1936, Fay obtained a bachelor's degree in geology from [[Yale University]] in [[New Haven]], [[Connecticut]]. At Yale, he was commissioned an ensign in the U.S. Naval Reserve. During [[World War II]], he commanded a submarine chaser in the [[Gulf of Mexico]] and the [[Atlantic Ocean]]. Later in the war, he was advanced to the rank of first lieutenant while serving in [[Okinawa]].<ref name=bio/>
==Extensive business interests==
In 1938, Fay and his brother, Ernest Fay (1914–1986), founded Seabrook Shipyard, which built submarine chasers and rescue boats during World War II. After the war, Fay operated various businesses in Texas and Louisiana, including shipbuilding and his Bel Oil Corporation.<ref name=bio/>
By 1972, his [[petroleum]] interests included holdings in several states as well as [[Canada]] and [[New Zealand]]. He also had [[real estate]] interests in [[Nicaragua]] and the [[Cayman Island]]s in the [[Caribbean Sea]]. At the time of his death, his business interests had diversified to include ranching, timber, marinas, and [[banking]].<ref name=bio/>
==GOP national committeeman, 1960-1969==
In 1952, Fay began precinct level work for the Republican Party of Texas. He supported Eisenhower,<ref name=bio/> a native Texan, having been born in Denison in 1890. Eisenhower was only the second [[Republican Party (United States)|GOP]] nominee since [[Reconstruction]] to have won the [[electoral vote]]s of Texas.
By 1960, Fay had become Republican national committeeman and an automatic member of the [[Republican National Committee]]. At the[1964 [[Republican National Convention]] in [[San Francisco]], [[California]], Fay served on the Credentials Committee.<ref>[[Jack Crichton]], ''The Republican-Democrat Political Campaigns in Texas in 1964,'' self-published, 2004, p. 24.</ref> In 1969, Fay lost his national committeeman's position about the time that the [[attorney]] William Merritt Steger (1920-2004) was elected state party chairman to succeed Peter O'Donnell of [[Dallas]]. Steger had been the unsuccessful Republican [[governor of Texas|gubernatorial]] candidate in 1960 and was later a long-serving U.S. District Court [[judge]] based in [[Tyler, Texas|Tyler]] in Smith County in east Texas.
==Running for Texas land commissioner==
In 1962 and 1966, Fay was the unsuccessful Republican nominee for Texas land commissioner. In the latter race he won the endorsement of the [[AFL-CIO]] executive board. He lost both races to popular [[Democratic Party|Democrat]] Gerald Anthony "Jerry" Sadler (1907-1982), who once had [[Governor|gubernatorial]] ambition. In the 1962 campaign, Fay hailed [[U.S. President]] [[John F. Kennedy]] for signing into law the establishment of the Padre Island National Seashore north of [[Brownsville]].<ref name=bio/>
In 1966, Fay supported President [[Lyndon B. Johnson]] in the establishment of the [[Guadalupe Mountains National Park]] in West Texas near the [[New Mexico]] border. Both acquisitions had long been strongly promoted by Democratic [[U. S. Senator]] [[Ralph Yarborough]]. Previously, Texas had only one national park: [[Big Bend National Park|Big Bend]] along the [[Rio Grande]] in the southwestern part of the state. Fay found himself allying with [[liberal]] Democrat Yarborough, whereas his opponent, Sadler, and the Texas Republican U. S. Senator [[John Tower]] were opposed to the additional park lands. Sadler took the view that the acquisition of lands from private individuals would mean less [[property tax]] revenues needed to provide the local share of financing of public schools as well as declining funds to the Texas Permanent School Fund.
No Republican was elected land commissioner until 1998, when David Dewhurst, later the lieutenant governor, won the position. Dewhurst succeeded long-time Land Commissioner Garry Mauro of [[Bryan, Texas|Bryan]] in Brazos County, who had first been elected in 1982.
==Gubernatorial primaries, 1972==
In 1972, Fay ran against five other candidates for the Republican gubernatorial nomination. He made it into the second primary but lost the nomination to then state Senator [[Henry C. Grover]], also of Houston and a staunch [[conservative]]. Grover was thereafter defeated in the [[general election]] by Democrat [[Dolph Briscoe]]. A third candidate was Ramsey Muñiz, nominee of the since-disbanded Hispanic Raza Unida Party. In the low-turnout runoff election, Grover received 37,842 votes (66.4 percent) to Fay's 19,166 (33.6 percent), according to ''Congressional Quarterly's Guide to U.S. Elections.''
In the primary campaign, Fay argued for another national park, this time in the Big Thicket of east Texas, a state park onMustang Island in the Gulf of Mexico, and a recreational area along Armand Bayou. He also urged the development of a comprehensive water plan and advocated reducing property taxes on the homes of the elderly. The state does not collect property taxes in Texas, but cities, counties, and school districts depend heavily on such revenues.<ref name=bio/>
==GOP financier and U.S. ambassador==
Fay served as chairman of his state's Republican finance committee, as a member of the national Republican finance committee (1968–1976), a member of the Texas Republican Executive Committee, and a member of the executive committee of the Republican National Committee. He was a delegate to three consecutive national conventions: 1960 in [[Chicago]], 1964 in [[San Francisco]], and 1968 in Miami Beach, [[Florida]]; he served as co-chairman of the state delegation in 1960 and vice chairman of the state delegation in 1964.<ref name=bio/>
In October 1969, U.S. President [[Richard M. Nixon]] appointed Fay to the 13-member board of governors overseeing the former Panama Canal Company. He retained that position until February 1976, when President [[Gerald Ford, named him ambassador to Trinidad and Tobago. He served in that capacity for over a year, until April 1977, some months after Democrat [[Jimmy Carter]] assumed the presidency.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://history.state.gov/departmenthistory/people/fay-albert-bel|title=Albert Bel Fay (1913-1992|publisher=Office of the Historian: U.S. State Department|accessdate=January 4, 2013}}</ref>
>Office of the Historian, U.S. Department of State. [http://history.state.gov/departmenthistory/people/fay-albert-bel ''Albert Bel Fay (1913-1992)'']. Retrieved January 4, 2013.</ref>
==Civic leadership and sportsmanship==
The ''Handbook of Texas'' lists Fay as a former director and president of the Houston Museum of Natural Science, a director of the American Brahman Breeders Association, a vice president of the Houston Branch of the English Speaking Union, and a member of the Yale University alumni board.<ref name=bio/>
According to ''The Handbook,'' he was also a licensed pilot and a yachtsman. He won the 5.5-meter world championship in [[Norway]], in 1983, when he defeated twenty-five other helmsmen from around the world. He was also a three-time winner of the Scandinavian Gold Cup and the United States Nationals. Fay served on the United States Olympic Yachting Committee, the [[United States Naval Academy]] Sailing Advisory Council, and the board of trustees of the Yale University Sailing Association.<ref name=bio/>
Fay is honored by the Albert Bel Fay Commodore's Trophy through the Texas Corinthian Yacht Club in Kemah, near Houston.
==Death and statement from first President Bush==
Fay died in Cuernavaca, the capital of the state of Morelos,, [[Mexico]]. He and Mrs. Fay are buried at Glenwood Cemetery in Houston. He was a [[Presbyterian]].
Then President and Mrs. [[George Herbert Walker Bush]] issued the following statement on Fay's death: "Albert was a close personal friend, and we will miss him greatly. He was a Texan through and through. He was a leader in building the Republican Party in Houston, starting in the early 1960s. Albert was a mentor who helped guide me in my early years in Texas politics, when getting Republicans elected was next to impossible. His service to the Republican Party has been invaluable."<ref>{{cite web|url=http://bushlibrary.tamu.edu/research/public_papers.php?id=4017&year=1992&month=3|title=Bush statement on death of Albert Bel Fay|publisher=George Bush Presidential Library and Museum|date=March 2, 1992|accessdate=October 25, 2019}}</ref>
George Bush Presidential Library and Museum: Public Papers - 1992 - March. [http://bushlibrary.tamu.edu/research/public_papers.php?id=4017&year=1992&month=3 ''Statement on the Death of Albert Bel Fay (1992-03-02)'']. Retrieved January 4, 2013.</ref>
==References==
{{reflist}}
*John R. Knaggs, ''Two-Party Texas: The John Tower Era'', 1961-1984 (Austin: Eakin Press, 1986).
*Roger M. Olien, ''From Token to Triumph: The Texas Republicans since 1920'' (Dallas: Southern Methodist University Press, 1982).
*''Who's Who in America'', 1980-81.
*http://politicalgraveyard.com/chrono/born-feb-26.html
*http://www.newsmeat.com/fec/bystate_detail.php?st=&zip=77007&last=FAY&first=ALBERT
*http://www.cr.nps.gov/history/online_books/pais/adhi4.htm
*http://www.tcyc.org/home/raceResults.html
{{Footer World Champions 5.5 Metre}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Fay, Albert Bel}}
[[Category:Texas]]
[[Category:Louisiana People]]
[[Category:Geologists]]
[[Category:Business People]]
[[Category:Politicians]]
[[Category:Republicans]]
[[Category: World War II]]
[[Category:United States Navy]]
[[Category: Presbyterians]]