Abigail Fair, noted conservationist, former Chatham mayor, dies at 81

Abigail Fair, a devoted conservationist who won local elections for 15 years as a Democrat when Chatham Township was still a Republican stronghold, died on May 17.  She was 81.

Fair began her public service career in 1976 when she was appointed to the Planning Board – a post first offered to her husband.  He spent years fighting to protect large tracts of land on what was once the estate of Geraldine Rockefeller Dodge.

She founded and became the chair of the Great Swamp Watershed Association in 1981 as a policy ally of the late Helen Fenske, a Chatham resident who had the led the fight to stop the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey from building an major airport on the land.

Fair led a long but successful battle to gain federal recognition for the swamp and freshwater wetlands.  and spent 16 years on the Planning Board and several years on the Environmental Commission.

In 1989, Fair was elected to the Chatham Township Committee by just 16 votes against Republican incumbent James Kincaid.   She became the lone Democrat in local government.

When she ran for re-election to a second term in 1992, Fair was the top vote-getter.  She edged out another incumbent, Republican William Rech, by about 100 votes and ran around 250 votes ahead of GOP challenger Peter Hoffmann.

Fair took a third term in 1995 and was again the top vote-getter in an unusual six-candidate race for two seats.  She outpolled Rech by 250 votes and ran about 650 votes in front of Libertarian Austin Lett, who had campaigned in support of tax cuts.  Republican Frank Verducci, a Planning Board member and physical education teacher at Newark’s Barringer High School, ran 35 votes behind Lett, followed by Libertarian Ray Connors and Democrat Carlton Hansen.

Despite a 4-1 Republican majority, Fair became the deciding vote for mayor in a split among Republicans when the council reorganized in January 1997.

Fredric Pocci, who had ousted Mayor Richard Russomano in the 1996 Republican primary, became mayor when Fair joined him and another new township committeeman, Joseph Reilly in a 3-2 vote.

As part of the deal, Fair became the deputy mayor.

In 1998, Fair became mayor for one year under the township’s rotation system.  As the only Democrat on the Chatham Township Committee during her fifteen year tenure, the mayoralty never returned to her.

After some confusion with the filing deadline in 1998, Fair never filed nominating petitions to run for a fourth term – something that was not her intent.  She had no trouble capturing the Democratic nomination as a write-in candidate.

She finished second in the general election, about 300 votes behind Republican Susan Hoag, who captured the open seat caused by Rech’s retirement.   Fair defeated Republican Bill Jackson by around 350 votes.

A former Republican township committeeman, William Spraitzar, challenged Fair in 2001 and lost by around 400 votes.  Hoag outpolled Fair by approximately 675 votes.

Gov. James E. McGreevey nominated Fair to serve as a trustee of the Meadowlands Conservation Trust in 2004.

After five terms, Fair declined to run again in 2004.

Democrats Nicole Hagner and Jack Hartford won two seats that year, by margins of 64 and 48 votes, respectively.

Fair served as director of water resources education for the Association of New Jersey Environmental Commissions.  She also served as a trustee for the Morris County Trust for Historic Preservation and the Morris County Land Conservancy.

Her husband, Gordon Fair, died in 2018.  She is survived by her three children, four grandchildren and a sister.