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J A M E S R . FAIR
1920–2010
Elected in 1974
“For contributions to mass transfer technology and
computer simulation of chemical processes.”
BY DONALD R. PAUL
JAMES R. FAIR, a giant in chemical engineering who
straddled the industrial-academic interface with great ease,
died on October 11, 2010, just three days short of age 90.
Jim was born on October 14, 1920, in Charleston, Missouri,
south of St. Louis and near where the Ohio River intersects
the Mississippi River. He spent his early years in Tonganoxie,
Kansas, and Little Rock, Arkansas. As a young boy Jim was
very fond of watching baseball games and was fascinated by
all aspects of trains and railroads; these were pastimes that
stayed with him throughout his life. He was very active in
scouting and became an Eagle Scout before his 16th birthday.
At age 18, Jim entered the Citadel, in South Carolina, in the
tradition of his father. In 1940 he transferred to the Georgia
Institute of Technology, where he received a B.S. in chemical
engineering in 1942. After graduation he joined the Monsanto
Chemical Company as a junior engineer in St. Louis. Later he
had assignments in Karnack and Texas City, Texas. During
World War II he was vitally involved with the government’s
high-explosives and synthetic rubber programs.
As it turned out, Jim was transferred to Texas City just prior
to what has been called the worst industrial accident in U.S.
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history, and he narrowly missed being one of its fatalities.
On April 16, 1947, a French-registered ship, the Grandcamp,
which was docked at the port of Texas City, adjacent to the
Monsanto facility and loaded with approximately 2,300 tons
of ammonium nitrate, caught fire. Seeing the smoke, Jim and
some of his colleagues went to the docks to investigate. Very
fortunately, though, Jim decided to return to his office to
complete some calculations while the others remained on the
dock to watch the fire. On his way to the office, the ammonium
nitrate detonated and the explosion destroyed the Monsanto
plant. Many of Jim’s coworkers were among the nearly 600
who died. Jim was knocked unconscious and injured by the
blast; he was quite fortunate to have survived the disaster.
Because of his outstanding work and promise as a young
engineer, Jim was granted an academic leave of absence for
one year by Monsanto and used it to obtain a master’s degree
in chemical engineering from the University of Michigan,
which he completed in June 1949. He returned to Monsanto in
Texas City and soon met a lovely young Texas girl by the name
of Merle Innis. Merle and Jim were married January 14, 1950.
Their first child, James Rutherford Fair, was born in Texas City
on February 8, 1951.
Following the Michigan experience, Jim gave a lot of
thought to obtaining a Ph.D. and considered reaction kinetics
an important area to pursue. In 1952 he took an unpaid leave
of absence from Monsanto to enter the graduate program in
chemical engineering at the University of Texas at Austin,
where he did research with Professor Howard F. Rase. After
receiving his Ph.D. in 1954, Jim joined Shell Development
Company in Emeryville, California, where he worked for
about two years. A second child, Elizabeth Fair, was born in
Oakland, California, on April 30, 1955.
In 1956, Jim returned to the Monsanto Chemical Company
in its Corporate Research Laboratories in Dayton, Ohio,
as a research section leader. In 1961 he was transferred to
Monsanto’s headquarters in St. Louis, where he took on ever-
increasing responsibilities. For a decade he was director of
corporate technology. While at Monsanto he maintained
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J A M E S R . FAIR 87
several academic connections, including serving as an affiliate
professor of chemical engineering at Washington University
from 1964 to 1979. Jim and Merle’s third child, Richard Innis
Fair, was born in St. Louis on April 26, 1963.
Meanwhile, in the mid-1970s the first endowed chair in the
College of Engineering at the University of Texas at Austin was
established by the family of one of its successful alumni. Soon
after I became chair of the chemical engineering department
in 1977, the dean of the college, Earnest F. Gloyna (NAE
member), and I had several conversations about Jim Fair and
his strong interest in engineering education. We decided to
see if this chair could be used to attract Jim to return to Austin
as part of our faculty. In 1979, Jim began a full-time academic
career at the University of Texas at Austin by accepting the
offer of the Ernest & Virginia Cockrell Chair in Engineering. In
1985 he was appointed to the new John J. McKetta Centennial
Energy Chair in Engineering, established to honor his friend
and colleague. Jim established the Separations Research
Program, a very successful industrial-academic consortium,
in 1983 at the university and remained its head until 1996. At
its zenith this program had as many as 40 corporate sponsors.
During his academic career, Jim directed the research for 21
master’s theses and 22 doctoral dissertations. Over his entire
professional career, Jim published more than 200 technical
papers and book chapters. He served as technical consultant to
many companies. For 25 years he taught a continuing education
course under the sponsorship of the American Institute of
Chemical Engineers, the course being the organization’s most
popular; it was offered over 125 times. Jim officially retired
from his academic position at age 72 but continued to work
every day while holding emeritus status.
The majority of the technical work Jim did during his 33
years in industry was of a proprietary nature, but he was
also able to establish a remarkable publication record in the
archival literature. His technical expertise and interest were
always in the design of the components that make up chemical
manufacturing plants—reactors, heat exchangers, separations
devices, and so forth. His true love was the design and
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operation efficiency of distillation columns. He wrote many
review articles and contributions to handbooks in these areas.
After joining the University of Texas at Austin, Jim started an
active research program on separations, mainly in the areas
of distillation and extraction. These topics had been largely
abandoned by most universities owing in part to the lack
of government funding for topics of such practical concern
to companies. However, Jim solved the funding problem
by using his strong industry background and connections
to obtain very generous support of both fundamental and
applied separation research from a wide array of corporations.
He added professional staff and included a number of his
faculty colleagues and supported their contributions via the
industrially funded Separations Research Program.
Jim Fair was involved in many professional activities,
with service on many boards and committees. He was widely
recognized for his contributions to engineering practice
and education. He served as vice president of Fractionation
Research, Inc., and was a registered professional engineer in
Texas and Missouri. He received the Professional Achievement
Award from Chemical Engineering magazine in 1968 “for
contributions to chemical engineering design education and
to the field of separations technology” and was elected to the
National Academy of Engineering in 1974.
Jim was especially active in the American Institute of
Chemical Engineers (AIChE), where he served a term as an
elected director and held the grade of fellow since 1971. He
received the following awards from the AIChE: the William
H. Walker Award (1973), the Chemical Engineering Practice
Award (1975), the Founders Award (1976), and the Gerhold
Award in Separations Technology (1994). In November 1979
he delivered the annual institute lecture before AIChE and in
November 1983 was recognized as one of 30 living eminent
chemical engineers at the AIChE Diamond Jubilee Meeting.
In November 2000 he was honored in a special symposium of
AIChE for his many contributions to the institute’s distance-
learning program. He received the Malcolm Pruitt Award from
the Council for Chemical Research (1991), the Gold Medallion
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J A M E S R . FAIR 89
Award from the American Society for Engineering Education
(1993), and the Separations Science and Technology Award of
the American Chemical Society (1993). In October 1993 he was
honored by a festschrift of the international journal Industrial
and Engineering Chemistry Research, published by the American
Chemical Society. He was inducted into the Engineering Hall
of Fame at Georgia Tech in 1994.
Jim received honorary doctorates from Washington University
(1977) and Clemson University (1987). He was named a
distinguished engineering graduate by the University of
Texas at Austin (1976) and also received the university’s Joe
J. King Professional Engineering Achievement Award (1987)
“for exemplary leadership in the engineering profession.”
Following his childhood interest in trains, Jim conducted
research on railroad history and, to this end, published a
number of articles as well as two full-length books on the
subject. His very large collection on railroad history and
operations has been given to the Railroad and Heritage
Museum in Temple, Texas. He was an avid book collector, and
his extensive collection of technical books was given to the
University of Guanajuato in Mexico. Jim wrote his memoirs for
his family and a few friends, which he subtitled “Recollections
of a Good Life.”
Jim led an active church life and served University
Presbyterian Church in Austin, including session membership.
He is survived by his wife of 61 years, Merle; their two sons
(their daughter died earlier in 2010); and six grandchildren.
