‘Not even hospice could stop’ iconic federal judge
Even on his deathbed, the law kept Peter Fay going.
Despite his declining health, the iconic 92-yearold federal appeals court judge would screen cases one by one as they came through the system.
“My dad worked till the very end — not even hospice could stop him,” said Michael Fay of his father, who died Sunday surrounded by the family he raised in South Miami-Dade. “He loved the law, loved his work, loved people. … His mind was just so unbelievable. It’s just his body that failed him.”
A few months before his death, Fay joined a distinguished pantheon of federal judges who made it to 50 years on the job, a milestone that only 26 others in U.S. history have reached. He had been apIn pointed to the district court in South Florida in 1970 and, six years later, was elevated to the appeals court.
“Few judges have served our country for so long and in such an honorable and distinguished manner,” the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit said in a written feature of Fay. Even at 92, “Judge Fay continues to perform substantial work for the Court of Appeals and the citizens of the Eleventh Circuit.”
Through his senior years, Fay always emphasized he had no intention of retiring. “If I had to play golf every day, I’d shoot myself,” he said at the time.
Peter Thorpe Fay was born in New York and graduated from Rollins College in Winter Park in 1951, before attending the University of Florida College of Law in 1956. In between, he served in the Air Force from 1951 to 1953.
1970, Fay was nominated by President Richard Nixon as a federal judge for the Southern District of Florida. In 1976, he was appointed by President Gerald Ford to the U.S.
Court of Appeals for the
Fifth Circuit in New Orleans. In 1981, he was reassigned to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit in Atlanta, where he assumed senior status in 1994.
Fay’s star rose so quickly that in 1987, when U.S. Supreme Court Justice Lewis F. Powell Jr. resigned, South Florida politicians and lawyers touted him as a strong candidate to replace him.
Former Chief U.S. District Judge Federico Moreno said Fay’s “five decades as a magnificent judge is well known, but his humility, faith and generosity with his time is his legacy.
“He was a true American hero, who never forgot what it was like to be a trial lawyer,” said Moreno, who has assumed senior status as federal judge in the Southern District of Florida.
The Moot Courtroom, located within St. Thomas University’s College of Law, was named after Fay. He has been named Outstanding Federal Appellate Judge by the Association of Trial Lawyers of America and received the William Hoeveler Award for Ethics, Leadership, and Public Service from the University of Miami School of Law. His alma mater, the University of Florida College of Law, named its Jurist-in-Residence Program after him.
“That’s just the beginning of what my dad did, workwise. What his résumédoesn’t touch on is what an incredible father and husband he was,” Michael Fay said, as he recalled his dad’s “relentless” effort to never miss any of his kids’ sporting events.
“He never missed a single one of my basketball games in college,” Michael Fay said. “I would be in some town, Lord knows somewhere in the middle-ofnowhere in the Southeast, and he would just drive hours to watch my game.”
“That’s who he was. He always made people feel important.”
Fay and his wife of 62 years, Pat Fay, adopted Michael and two other children from Catholic Charities Adoption Services when they were infants.
“Somehow, he always knew how to utilize his time to be home for family dinners alongside having such a successful law career,” Michael Fay said, noting that his father was also an exceptional athlete.
“We played hundreds of games of basketball or touch football in the yard,” he said, noting that his father was inducted into the Rollins sports Hall of Fame for water skiing, basketball and football. “He’s likely also taught more than 3,000 people in his 92 years of life how to water ski.”
Senior U.S. District Judge Paul Huck described Fay — his first boss practicing law — as a kind, considerate judge who had a unique ability to make lawyers feel good about his rulings, even when he ruled against them.
Recalling an afternoon sitting with Fay on the back porch of his summer home in North Carolina, Huck said he brought up a case in which Fay had written the published opinion reversing one of Huck’s court decisions.
“I mentioned that it was the most generously, kindly worded reversal that I had ever experienced. He broadly smiled, explaining that when he circulated his draft opinion to the other two members of his panel for comments, one, noting the generous wording of the draft, inquired, ‘Pete, is Paul Huck your friend?’ to which he replied, ‘Yes, and don’t change a word!’ ”
Fighting back tears, Huck said, “We both had a good laugh ... and that’s what he always did, he made people smile.”
Fay is survived by his wife Pat, three adult children and seven grandchildren. Funeral arrangements are being planned.