Charles Ernest Fay

Professor Charles Ernest Fay (1846 – 1931) was an American Alpinist, born at Roxbury, Massachusetts. He graduated in 1868 at Tufts College and became instructor in mathematics there in 1869, and professor of modern languages in 1871. He was president of the New England Modern Language Association in 1905.

Fay first visited the Canadian Rockies in 1890, and was a pioneer in the development of mountaineering in the Canadian Rockies and the Selkirks. He served as president of the Appalachian Mountain Club in 1878, 1881, 1893, and 1905, and was a founder and the first president of the American Alpine Club (1902-1904).

Fay was one of a party of four attempting to climb Mount Lefroy in 1896 when Phillip Stanley Abbott became the first mountaineering fatality in the Canadian Rockies. Fay made an, “impassioned defence of mountaineering at the inquiry into Abbot’s death that put an end to the grumbling in political circles that mountaineering ought to be banned in Canada.” Fay returned in 1897 to summit both Mounts Lefroy and Victoria.

The Alpine Club of Canada has named the Fay Hut located in Kootenay National Park after Charles Fay.

Fay continued climbing and mountaineering until well into his eighties.