Kim Fairey died Nov. 8, in Norwalk after a two-year battle with pancreatic cancer, fought with hope and amazing courage, sadness and joy, and ineffable grace.
Kim Fairey, 58, died Tuesday, Nov. 8. Her funeral was on Saturday.
Born March 27, 1958 in Pittsburgh, Kim grew up in Austin, Texas, having moved there before her first birthday. She attended Polly Sisto’s Nursery School, then Dill, Casis, and O’Henry schools. She graduated as valedictorian from St. Stephen’s Episcopal School.
Kim received her bachelor of arts degree from Wellesley College, her MBA from Stanford Business School, and M.Div. from Columbia’s Union Seminary. She married Marc Lewis after her graduation from Wellesley.
They attended Stanford together, then lived in Austin, where their daughters were born. They later moved to Los Angeles, and then to Darien. A memorial service was held on Nov. 12 at her church in Darien.
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— This obituary previously was published in the Austin American-Statesman.
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Kim was a gifted pianist who, at age 10, performed Haydn’s D-major Concerto No. 11 with the Austin Symphony Orchestra. She was an “avocational pianist” throughout her life.
She was a member of the Junior Leagues of Austin and Stamford-Norwalk and a member of St. Luke’s Episcopal Church in Darien.
Kim’s business career included real estate and banking in both New York City and Austin. For the last 10 years, until three weeks before her death, Kim worked with Horizons National, a non-profit organization with more than 50 affiliate programs across the country that, with stunning success, address “summer slide” among underprivileged children.
Kim is survived by her parents, Tom and Judy Fairey (Austin), her children, Jennie Lewis (Boston) and Sarah Lewis (Norwalk), her sister, Kristen Fairey (Brooklyn, N.Y.), her nephews and niece, Eric (Palo Alto, Ca.), Christopher (Singapore), and Heather Mayer (London), her partner, David Boyd, and her ex-husband, Marc Lewis, as well as myriad dear friends — all of whom will long remember her big blue eyes and bright smile, her wit and joy, her intelligence and musical talent, her caring can-do attitude, and her huge capacity for fun and for love.
A long-time colleague described Kim thus: “Reverent, irreverent, thoughtful, raucous, sensitive, ribald, passionate, honest, enraged, engaged, loving, tactless, exasperating, funny, appealing, valiant, compassionate, quiet, noisy, most of the time so uninhibited by self-consciousness that she was frequently all of those things within five minutes. … Did anyone not love her? I don’t think so. May she Rest in Peace.”
Should you wish to memorialize Kim, her family suggests a gift to Horizons Austin Trinity (3901 Bee Cave Road, Austin, TX 78746) or a charity of your choice.
If you have a “Kim story” to share, please send it to kimfaireymemories@gmail.com.