R.W. Fair to Become Part of Half Mile of History

TYLER — Oilman and philanthropist R.W. Fair will be honored soon with a marker in the Half Mile of History in Downtown Tyler. A marker unveiling is set for Thursday, Feb. 24, at 11 a.m. at Gallery Main Street, 110 W. Erwin. The Half Mile of History is a City of Tyler program that honors significant people, places and events in Smith County History. Applications are vetted by the city�s Historic Preservation Board, which recommends nominees for inclusion to the Tyler City Council. Fair, who founded the R.W. Fair Foundation with his wife, Mattie, will join historic figures such as T.B. Butler, Shirley Simons, Lady Willie Lee Glass, Brookshire�s and others honored by the program.

Fair was born near Arp in 1886 and grew to become a successful pecan farmer, oilman, philanthropist and religious and civic leader. In 1923, he moved his family to Tyler, and by the 1930s he had established large peach and pecan plantations in Texas and Arkansas. One of his earliest ventures was the Texas Pecan Nursery located in Tyler, which was the largest paper shell pecan operation west of the Mississippi.

In 1931, Fair leased one of his peach orchards to a Dallas oilman who had drilled a successful oil producer on a farm just down the road. Although R.W. Fair had no experience in the oil business, his entrepreneurial instincts took over and shortly thereafter, he became the first individual to finance 100 percent working interest in a well drilled on his own property with 100 percent royalty interest. The rest is history, and Fair was in the petroleum business, successfully developing fields in Texas, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Colorado, Louisiana and Mississippi.

In 1934, Fair and his wife, Mattie, established the R.W. Fair Foundation. During his lifetime, Fair�s many accomplishments included funding over 1,000 college educations for theological students worldwide, serving on the Boards of Trustees of both SMU and Lon Morris College for 39 years, financing the production of several full length faith-based motion pictures translated into languages from around the globe, printing and distributing over 12 million copies of �A Better World Begins With Me� pamphlets worldwide, and serving as a long-time member of Marvin United Methodist Church, where he was Chairman of the Board of Stewards and taught men�s Bible study.

Until his death in 1965, Fair remained very active in the Tyler community. Activities included Chamber of Commerce officer, bank director, president of the Tyler Rotary Club, chairman of the Salvation Army, director of the East Texas Fair Association, president of the East Texas Boy Scout Council, TISD Board of Trustees and treasurer of the Texas College Advisory Committee. He was a founder and the first president of the East Texas Hospital Association (now ETMC) and a trustee of Houston Methodist Hospital. In 1941, he received the T.B. Butler award.