Elwin Leland Fair, the second child of Elmer Leland and Sophia Lucille
Fair, was born November 5, 1927, in Oxford, Nebraska. He passed away on
May 28, 2022, at the age of 94 in Corvallis, Oregon.
Elwin attended elementary and middle school in a one-room country
school and graduated from high school in Lebanon, Kansas, in 1946 where
he was active in both football and baseball. After graduating, Elwin
helped his folks farm the Fair Family Homestead until 1951 when he
joined the Army as a mechanic stationed in Korea, where he had to make
field repairs between battles. After his tour of duty, Elwin attended
college in Klamath Falls, Oregon, at the Oregon Institute of Technology
(OIT), receiving his degree in auto and diesel mechanics. After
graduating, Elwin worked at Georgia Pacific as a mechanic in Logsdon,
Oregon. During this time, he married Judy Aslin in February 1959 in the
state of Washington and later that year, they welcomed daughter, Renee
Fair, born in Toledo in September 1959. Elwin and Judy later divorced.
Elwin then moved to Boise, Idaho, where he worked for a heavy equipment
company for several years. Because of his father’s ill health, Elwin,
along with his daughter Renee, moved back to the farm in Kansas to take
over from his father, being the fourth generation to farm that tract of
land. During this time, Elwin also worked in road construction in
Hasting, Nebraska.
After Renee graduated high school, Elwin and his mother Lucille
would make the drive west to visit his older sister, Betty (Fair) Mahler
in Oregon and younger sister, Wilma (Fair) Shewey in Idaho, returning
during the summers to the farm in Kansas. After Lucille’s passing, the
family farm was sold and Elwin moved in to live with his sister Betty in
Albany, Oregon, until December 2021 when she fell and broke her hip. He
then moved to Lebanon, Oregon, to live with his daughter until his
health started to decline, and in April was moved into a nursing home
and was there until his death.
Elwin is survived by his daughter Renee Fair of Lebanon, Oregon,
granddaughter Amanda (Monie) McLaughlin and husband Nic of California,
and their two sons Paul and AlexZander, grandson Ethan Monie and fiancé
Tracy of Albany, Oregon, and sister Betty (Fair) Mahler of Albany,
Oregon. Elwin was preceded in death by his father Elmer Leland Fair in
1982, Mother Sophia Lucille Fair in 2010, and younger sister Wilma
(Fair) Shewey in February 2022.
Jun 02, 2022
Elwin Leland Fair
Posted Jun 02, 2022 2:39 PM