Police Chaplaincy Loses One of its Most Beloved Champions 

David Fair 1947 - 2023

David Joel Fair, longtime police chaplain and former member of the Brownwood, TX City Council, died on January 7, 2023. He was 76.

Beloved among his large circle of friends, Fair was a respected leader in his hometown of Brownwood, TX and earned national acclaim for his tireless devotion to police chaplaincy.

Working first as a radio broadcaster at KEAN &  KPSM, then as a manager at Rotocast Plastics, Fair found his life’s calling in 1989 when he joined Brownwood Police Department as a police chaplain. By 1994, he became a fully commissioned peace officer and was eventually appointed Director of Chaplain Services.

Certified in multiple disciplines related to crisis intervention traumatic stress, Fair provided a beacon of light through some of the darkest days of the late 20th century. His deployments include Luby's Cafeteria Mass Murders (Killeen, Texas), the aftermath of Waco’s Branch Davidian stand-off, the Oklahoma City bombing, the Space Shuttle Columbia’s debris field recover effort and Ground Zero in the days following September 11.

Fair also served as a Chaplain for the Texas State Guard‘s 111th Engineers, responding to natural disasters, including Hurricane Katrina, Rita, Dolly, Gustav and Ike.

Working the front lines of such tragedies puts 1st responders at increased risk for of PTSD, stress, and depression. “It begins eating you from the inside out,” Fair recalled. Through each deployment, Fair followed his instincts and training: Get to the scene, rescue the rescuers and help those who do recovery, recover as well.

Each deployment came at a price.

Over the years, Chaplain Fair accumulated some of the psychological scars common to first responders and crisis chaplains. It was a burden shared by his wife Karen. “Each time he went to a disaster, I didn’t think he would be coming back,” she recalls.

Over the past 15 years, Fair has honored his fellow police chaplains as co-founder of the Police Chaplain Project, a nationwide effort to digitally capture the words and wisdom of America's police chaplains and share the content with future generations of police chaplains.

“When I first met Dave and learned about police chaplaincy, I wanted to share his story,” said Phillip LeConte, co-founder of the Police Chaplain Project. “Here was a group of citizens who provided a spiritual lifeline to people in their most desperate hour and their efforts are virtually unknown.”

To date, the program has conducted more that 100 on-camera interviews with some of the most accomplished police chaplains of the past 50 years. The interviews, including Chaplain Fair’s contributions, can be found at ChaplainUSA.org.

Dave is survived by his wife of 47 years, Karen. He often referred to her as the "wind beneath his wings." He is also survived by his three daughters, Felicity Sale of Grapevine and Shanna Jacobson, and husband, Craig of Georgetown, LaCindi Fair of Brownwood, his granddaughters, Emily Sale of Grapevine, Lilly Sale of Grapevine, Meagan Person and husband Dylan of Brady, Courtney Jacobson, and fiance Dylan Dybass of Austin. And one great-granddaughter, Bethany Joy Person. Dave is also survived by his brother, Edward (Ed) Fair of Costa Rica, niece Sossity Fair of Round Rock, great niece Riley Beard of Round Rock, and one great nephew Zane Beard of Round Rock.

He is preceded in death by his parents, Jake and LaBella Stein Fair.