Rash's Surname Index
Notes for Herbert Fairfax Jr. LEARY
Fairfax Leary Jr., 80, a Philadelphia lawyer and retired law school professor, died Thursday at his Villanova home.
He was the son of Navy Vice Admiral H. Fairfax Leary. Mr. Leary, a Washington native, graduated from Princeton University, Phi Beta Kappa, in 1932, and from Harvard Law School in 1935. He was an editor of the Harvard Law Review.
In 1946, he came to Philadelphia to teach commercial law at the University of Pennsylvania Law School.
Mr. Leary became a partner in the early 1950s in the law firm of Schnader, Harrison, Segal & Lewis. Five years later, he joined Saul, Ewing, Remick & Saul as a partner.
In the late 1940s and early '50s, Mr. Leary helped write the Uniform Commercial Code, the corporate law governing financing and movement of money throughout the United States. He was known as "Fax" to friends and associates. He lectured frequently and wrote books and articles on commercial law topics.
Mr. Leary did bond counsel work for schools and municipal projects and represented banks and businesses. He was legal counsel for the General State Authority in Harrisburg in the 1950s and again in the 1960s.
"He was brilliant and very imaginative, not only in teaching but in the practice of law," said Arlin Adams, former judge on the Third U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. "He was a lovely guy."
Mr. Leary was a member of the Philadelphia Bar Association's board of governors and was the first president of Jenkins Memorial Library. He organized and served as the first chairman of the bar association's corporate banking and business law section. He received the association's Fidelity Award in 1971.
He began teaching part time at Temple Law School in 1969, and later became full time. In 1977, he joined the faculty of the Delaware Law School of Widener University, and taught until he retired in 1987.
Mr. Leary took a year off from teaching at Temple in the early 1970s to work with Ralph Nader's Public Research Group. He was a trustee in the reorganization of the bankrupt Penn Central Railroad from 1970 to 1978.
"We would like to thank you, Professor Leary, for being our teacher and counting us among your friends," wrote his law students, fellow teachers, lawyers and Ralph Nader, when he retired, in a special issue of the Delaware Journal of Corporate Law.
He also was a member of the District of Columbia, New York, Pennsylvania and American Bar Associations; a Fellow of the American Bar Association, and life member of the American Law Institute.
He is survived by his wife of 49 years, the former Sarah Lippincott O'Neill; two sons, Michael B. and Brian F., a daughter, Sally Fairfax Englund; a sister, and five grandchildren.
A memorial service is scheduled for 4:30 p.m. Wednesday at Church of the Redeemer, Bryn Mawr.
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