15
gun collector. Dick spent many hours with his father at gun dealers learning about
the mechanisms, models, and bullets of guns used during the Revolutionary and
Civil Wars as well as more modern guns. Dick still today showcases many of his
historic guns at this home on Cape Cod in Falmouth, MA. I hear from Dick’s wife
Cathy Fay that their children Chris and Amanda, and even their grandkids Nate and
Evan are excellent shots!
Dick’s father, Charles Rozzell Fay was of great infl uence on Dick during his
precollege years growing up in Massachusetts. Charles Fay was a descendant of
John Fay who emigrated from England to Massachusetts on the Speedwell in 1620.
Charles was a mechanical engineer who received his law degree from George
Washington University and became a patent attorney. He practiced patent law in
Worcester, MA with Dick’s grandfather, Albert E. Fay, who was also a mechanical
engineer and patent attorney. It was the fi rm of Fay, Fay and Hawley that patented
many of early rocket designs of Robert F. Goddard, often recognized as the founding father of modern rocketry. As Dick often mentioned, Charles Fay loved his
profession and was most enchanted with dealing with what he termed the “Yankee
Ingenuity” of the creative New England inventors. Charles would entertain the family with humorous stories of the almost yearly patent applications for a “Perpetual
Motion” machine. Dick spent many hours watching his father make intricate and
precise mechanical drawings for the many patents over the years. Dick says his love
for “precision” stemmed from seeing these early drawings and that he often
attempted to replicate.
Charles R. Fay met and married Dick’s mother Ingrid Clara Tellefsen, who was
from Trondheim Norway, while working in the patent offi ce in Washington DC. At
the time Charles met Ingrid she was an assistant to the US Ambassador to Norway.
Later, Dick’s mother Ingrid Fay and aunt would buy a small island on Kezar Lake
in Lovell, Maine as a summer getaway. The island soon became known as “Birch
Island” by the Fay family. Dick would spend every summer there with his family
swimming, boating, fi shing and later working as a dishwasher at the Sunset Inn
down the lake from the family camp. To this day Dick and his family still make their
annual summer visit to Birch Island which is actually very close to the summer
home of Stephen King, a famous American author of contemporary horror and
supernatural fi ction. I remember Dick telling me a great story about a young movie
director named Monroe Mann who asked Dick if he could shoot part of his movie
on the docks of Birch Island to make a low budget comedy horror fi lm called “You
can’t kill Stephen King.” Dick did grant permission and part of the movie was
fi lmed on the docks of Dick’s summer home on Birch Island. If you look carefully,
you can still fi nd this B-movie available on the web for rent or sale!
In 1962, Dick headed off to college in Brunswick, Maine where he attended
Bowdoin College. According to Dick, he chose Psychology as his major because he
found comparative psychology and especially “Behaviorism” an appealing concept
and a topic he thought he would enjoy exploring. During his studies, we would later
fi nd that the approach of the early psychophysicists such as Ernst Weber, Gustav
Fechner, Stanley Smith Stevens, Hermann von Helmholtz, Wilhelm Wundt and later
Georg von Békésy were also worthy of study. It was at Bowdoin that Dick became
A Most Interesting Man of Science: The Life and Research of Richard Rozzell Fay
gun collector. Dick spent many hours with his father at gun dealers learning about
the mechanisms, models, and bullets of guns used during the Revolutionary and
Civil Wars as well as more modern guns. Dick still today showcases many of his
historic guns at this home on Cape Cod in Falmouth, MA. I hear from Dick’s wife
Cathy Fay that their children Chris and Amanda, and even their grandkids Nate and
Evan are excellent shots!
Dick’s father, Charles Rozzell Fay was of great infl uence on Dick during his
precollege years growing up in Massachusetts. Charles Fay was a descendant of
John Fay who emigrated from England to Massachusetts on the Speedwell in 1620.
Charles was a mechanical engineer who received his law degree from George
Washington University and became a patent attorney. He practiced patent law in
Worcester, MA with Dick’s grandfather, Albert E. Fay, who was also a mechanical
engineer and patent attorney. It was the fi rm of Fay, Fay and Hawley that patented
many of early rocket designs of Robert F. Goddard, often recognized as the founding father of modern rocketry. As Dick often mentioned, Charles Fay loved his
profession and was most enchanted with dealing with what he termed the “Yankee
Ingenuity” of the creative New England inventors. Charles would entertain the family with humorous stories of the almost yearly patent applications for a “Perpetual
Motion” machine. Dick spent many hours watching his father make intricate and
precise mechanical drawings for the many patents over the years. Dick says his love
for “precision” stemmed from seeing these early drawings and that he often
attempted to replicate.
Charles R. Fay met and married Dick’s mother Ingrid Clara Tellefsen, who was
from Trondheim Norway, while working in the patent offi ce in Washington DC. At
the time Charles met Ingrid she was an assistant to the US Ambassador to Norway.
Later, Dick’s mother Ingrid Fay and aunt would buy a small island on Kezar Lake
in Lovell, Maine as a summer getaway. The island soon became known as “Birch
Island” by the Fay family. Dick would spend every summer there with his family
swimming, boating, fi shing and later working as a dishwasher at the Sunset Inn
down the lake from the family camp. To this day Dick and his family still make their
annual summer visit to Birch Island which is actually very close to the summer
home of Stephen King, a famous American author of contemporary horror and
supernatural fi ction. I remember Dick telling me a great story about a young movie
director named Monroe Mann who asked Dick if he could shoot part of his movie
on the docks of Birch Island to make a low budget comedy horror fi lm called “You
can’t kill Stephen King.” Dick did grant permission and part of the movie was
fi lmed on the docks of Dick’s summer home on Birch Island. If you look carefully,
you can still fi nd this B-movie available on the web for rent or sale!
In 1962, Dick headed off to college in Brunswick, Maine where he attended
Bowdoin College. According to Dick, he chose Psychology as his major because he
found comparative psychology and especially “Behaviorism” an appealing concept
and a topic he thought he would enjoy exploring. During his studies, we would later
fi nd that the approach of the early psychophysicists such as Ernst Weber, Gustav
Fechner, Stanley Smith Stevens, Hermann von Helmholtz, Wilhelm Wundt and later
Georg von Békésy were also worthy of study. It was at Bowdoin that Dick became
A Most Interesting Man of Science: The Life and Research of Richard Rozzell Fay