Obituary for Abigail H. Fair (Hutcheson)
FAIR, Abigail Mason Hutcheson Fair of Arlington, formerly of Kingston, Pennsylvania, and Green Village, New Jersey, passed away peacefully on May 17, 2021. Born in Kingston on October 7, 1939, Abigail (also known as Abbie) was the third daughter of Allen Farrar Hutcheson and Marian Virginia Hornbaker Hutcheson. Abigail followed her sisters Eleanor and Susie for high school at Wyoming Seminary, and was voted May Queen Senior year and received the Ruggles Award made to the outstanding graduate of the class of 1957 (an award that her middle sister Susie also received when graduating in 1954). She then joined Susie attending Goucher College in Towson, MD, earning a Sociology degree.
Working for the Harvard Business School’s Radcliffe Management Program as a grader, Abbie met Gordon Maskew Fair, Jr. while he was finishing at the Harvard Business School’s MBA program. On Dec 1, 1962 they married. As an especially glamorous couple, they dashed off to Guinea, Africa, for two years to continue Gordon’s work in economic development. They then moved to Sydney, Australia, where her two sons Gordon, III and Gardner were born. Returning to the U.S. in 1967, her daughter Tory was born the next year as the young family moved from Arlington, Virginia, to Lexington, Mass., to finally settle in 1972 at her beloved Green Village, NJ. With her three children now school age, she devoted herself to her gardening, taking classes at the Bronx Botanical Garden and working briefly as a landscape designer. Abigail and Gordon hosted many Christmas extended family gatherings featuring such events as the serving of raccoon stew one year which their dog had caught and that Abbie's father Hutch insisted not go to waste.
In 1977 Abbie joined the town planning board and was shocked to learn that no one had thought much about updating the town plan even as their farmlands were rapidly turning into suburban subdivisions creating traffic for which they blamed other towns. Able to interpret maps because of her landscape work, she studied the many development proposals coming in fast and furious asking pointed questions the developers really didn't want to answer. She was reappointed to the town planning board every three years from 1977 until she retired from the board in 2004.
In 1981 Prudential planned a development that would impact a number of surrounding towns and so Abbie called a meeting with several influential people including her neighbor Helen Fenske who in the 1960s famously helped prevent the Great Swamp from being developed into an airport. This meeting led to Abbie creating and heading the Great Swamp Watershed Association. Uniting with twenty state environmental groups including the New Jersey Audubon Society, they helped pass the 1987 New Jersey Freshwater Wetlands Protection Act. That same year she was awarded the Conservation Award by the Audubon Society for her outstanding contribution toward the preservation of New Jersey’s freshwater wetlands.
In 1989 frustrated by the limits of the planning board, Abbie ran for Town Council and won by only 16 votes. As family lore would have it, she won the vote in part due to the festive and well attended fiftieth surprise birthday party her husband threw for her despite her strong protest the day of. Repeatedly re-elected with ease thereafter, she served as the township mayor in 1998.
Another much loved public contribution of Abbie’s included her work with the Association of New Jersey Environmental Commissions (ANJEC) from 1988 to 2010. Her challenge then was to learn about storm water and septic management and inform environmental groups and various towns across the state about her findings.
In 2010 she moved with her husband Gordon, Jr. to Arlington, MA close to their daughter Tory. While caring for her beloved plants, reading avidly, practicing Tai Chi, singing in the Lexington Pops Chorus, and delighting in visits from family near and far, she devoted herself to the care of her husband’s failing health until his passing in September of 2018.
Abigail was predeceased by her loving husband, Gordon Maskew Fair, Jr. and her sister, Susie Fetter. She is survived by her loving children Gordon, III (Maureen Kelly), Gardner (Naomi), and Tory (John Axon); her grandchildren, Sydney, Ellis, Nevin, and Mira; and her devoted sister Eleanor Epler.
In lieu of flowers, please consider donations to ANJEC (anjec.org/donate). A family celebration will be held at a later date.
Working for the Harvard Business School’s Radcliffe Management Program as a grader, Abbie met Gordon Maskew Fair, Jr. while he was finishing at the Harvard Business School’s MBA program. On Dec 1, 1962 they married. As an especially glamorous couple, they dashed off to Guinea, Africa, for two years to continue Gordon’s work in economic development. They then moved to Sydney, Australia, where her two sons Gordon, III and Gardner were born. Returning to the U.S. in 1967, her daughter Tory was born the next year as the young family moved from Arlington, Virginia, to Lexington, Mass., to finally settle in 1972 at her beloved Green Village, NJ. With her three children now school age, she devoted herself to her gardening, taking classes at the Bronx Botanical Garden and working briefly as a landscape designer. Abigail and Gordon hosted many Christmas extended family gatherings featuring such events as the serving of raccoon stew one year which their dog had caught and that Abbie's father Hutch insisted not go to waste.
In 1977 Abbie joined the town planning board and was shocked to learn that no one had thought much about updating the town plan even as their farmlands were rapidly turning into suburban subdivisions creating traffic for which they blamed other towns. Able to interpret maps because of her landscape work, she studied the many development proposals coming in fast and furious asking pointed questions the developers really didn't want to answer. She was reappointed to the town planning board every three years from 1977 until she retired from the board in 2004.
In 1981 Prudential planned a development that would impact a number of surrounding towns and so Abbie called a meeting with several influential people including her neighbor Helen Fenske who in the 1960s famously helped prevent the Great Swamp from being developed into an airport. This meeting led to Abbie creating and heading the Great Swamp Watershed Association. Uniting with twenty state environmental groups including the New Jersey Audubon Society, they helped pass the 1987 New Jersey Freshwater Wetlands Protection Act. That same year she was awarded the Conservation Award by the Audubon Society for her outstanding contribution toward the preservation of New Jersey’s freshwater wetlands.
In 1989 frustrated by the limits of the planning board, Abbie ran for Town Council and won by only 16 votes. As family lore would have it, she won the vote in part due to the festive and well attended fiftieth surprise birthday party her husband threw for her despite her strong protest the day of. Repeatedly re-elected with ease thereafter, she served as the township mayor in 1998.
Another much loved public contribution of Abbie’s included her work with the Association of New Jersey Environmental Commissions (ANJEC) from 1988 to 2010. Her challenge then was to learn about storm water and septic management and inform environmental groups and various towns across the state about her findings.
In 2010 she moved with her husband Gordon, Jr. to Arlington, MA close to their daughter Tory. While caring for her beloved plants, reading avidly, practicing Tai Chi, singing in the Lexington Pops Chorus, and delighting in visits from family near and far, she devoted herself to the care of her husband’s failing health until his passing in September of 2018.
Abigail was predeceased by her loving husband, Gordon Maskew Fair, Jr. and her sister, Susie Fetter. She is survived by her loving children Gordon, III (Maureen Kelly), Gardner (Naomi), and Tory (John Axon); her grandchildren, Sydney, Ellis, Nevin, and Mira; and her devoted sister Eleanor Epler.
In lieu of flowers, please consider donations to ANJEC (anjec.org/donate). A family celebration will be held at a later date.