Richard and Carol Fay exemplify the western spirit of enterprise and innovation. Both were born in the West, she in San Francisco and he in Boulder, Colorado. They came to Utah in 1981 when Carol was named district director for the Internal Revenue Service.
In 1987 Richard found himself at the University of Utah Hospital facing a terminal cancer diagnosis that began serious conversations between them about the meaning of life and what they wanted to do with their resources. That experience and Richard’s successful recovery began what would become a decades-long relationship with the University of Utah’s Health Sciences programs through volunteer service and financial support.
Richard and Carol Fay
Richard and Carol became interested in biomedical informatics through the pioneering work of Homer R. Warner, founder and first chairman of the department. The focus of biomedical informatics on computer and engineering principles tied in with Richard’s own work in securities trading.
In 1994, Richard and Carol created the Richard A. Fay and Carol M. Fay Presidential Endowed Biomedical Informatics Center of interdisciplinary sciences in honor of Dr. Warner. Their cumulative bequests include two presidential endowed chairs and endowments to support biomedical informatics applications across the health sciences—at the Moran Eye Center, Huntsman Cancer Institute, Department of Orthopedics, Department of Human Genetics, College of Pharmacy, University Hospitals and Clinics, and the University of Utah Hospital Critical Care Pavilion.
In 2013 Richard and Carol funded the Richard A. Fay and Carol M. Fay Endowed Graduate Fellowship Fund in the Department of Biomedical Informatics in honor of Dr. Warner which will award fellowships to two outstanding doctoral candidates this year, and annual awards in the future.
The U’s Department of Biomedical Informatics, established in 1964 and now located in the School of Medicine, was the first biomedical informatics department in the world. In 1965 it granted the first biomedical informatics doctorate in the United States.
Today, the department is internationally recognized as a leader in the field in research and education.
The Fay’s gifts for the center will promote the coordination of interdisciplinary sciences in the fields of medicine, data-based information, computer science, engineering, mathematics, and statistics.
This will include the engineering of medical knowledge into computer-based diagnostic systems, the development of knowledge-based patient record and data-based information systems, and the development of medical imaging and visualization systems.
Richard and Carol’s conversation about giving that began in 1987 continues today. “By experiencing how outstanding the University of Utah Health Sciences Center is gives us confidence that our money is in the right place. Our gifts create a great opportunity to combine the latest computer technology with medical science,” say Richard and Carol. “Giving adds joy and purpose to our lives—and leaves a legacy that lives on forever.”
