In this undated photo, Dr. Alan Fairchild relaxes in a rocking chair. Fairchild, who passed away May 23, started Knox County’s first OB/GYN practice with his partner, Dr. Joseph Nussbaum; in 50 years of practice, Fairchild delivered 14,000 children into the world.
His place there was already assured. Fairchild, who was 82 when he passed away at Knox Community Hospital, was an obstetrician who welcomed 14,000 babies into the world in his 50 years of practice.
KCH CEO Bruce White said Fairchild’s legacy in Knox County “spans generations.”
“You can’t walk into a sporting event anywhere in the county and see all those people in stands and not realize that at least half of the people there were touched by him in some way,” White said. “That’s amazing. That’s a life well-lived.”
He was known to be hard-working, but was equally well known for his kind demeanor. No one who met him could forget his warm smile and kind eyes.
At Fairchild’s funeral Wednesday, his niece, Dr. Janelle Pool, described her uncle’s eyes as “the Fairchild eyes” which have passed down through the generations.
Grandson Matt Chacey said Fairchild once related to him three stories, connected to important dates, that reflected the most important things in his life.
“It should be no surprise that the priorities he would have would be his family, his friends and his community,” Chacey said. “I do want to say how profoundly grateful he was to serve this community. He loved this community truly, deeply.”
Chacey said the most important dates Fairchild related to him were 1956, 1971, and “two or three years after he started his practice.”
The first date was when Fairchild met his bride-to-be, Phyllis Kirkpatrick, while both were working at First-Knox Bank. The Fairchilds brought three children into the world, Brenda, Lisa and Scott; their children gave them nine grandchildren, and their children, several great-grandchildren. Alan and Phyllis were married 61 years; she preceded him in death in 2019.
The second date came when Fairchild was working at Riverside Hospital. He received numerous attractive job offers to work in Columbus, but moving back to Knox County to start his practice was “the easiest decision he ever made,” Chacey said.
The story of the final date starts with a letter Fairchild wrote. Chacey said that, knowing his grandfather’s writing “it was probably illegible ... but it worked.” The recipient of the letter was Nussbaum, inviting him to join the practice.
Fairchild’s oldest child, Brenda Daubenmire, told her parent’s life as a series of meals and houses. Daubenmire related how the young family would spend nights in the physician’s call lounge at the hospital “just to spend time with him.” After moving back to Mount Vernon and the start of the practice, the Nussbaum family became close friends. Fairchild built a house on Club Drive, installing a bathtub in the bedroom which “made him the talk of the town,” Daubenmire said.
Daubenmire said the final house, built at Apple Valley, was her father’s favorite. It was there that they held many memorable parties and get-togethers, entertained friends, and where the grandchildren delighted in jumping off the boat dock into the lake.
“My dad would always say that he had a great life,” Daubenmire said. “He has had a great life. He was the first face that each of his grandchildren saw as they entered this world.
“On the day before he left us, we FaceTimed with the grandchildren and he challenged us all to meet him in heaven.”
