Peter W. Fay, 79; Author Was Caltech Professor of History
Peter W. Fay, 79, professor emeritus of history at Caltech and author of “The Opium War, 1840-1842,” died Sunday at his home in Sierra Madre after a long illness.
A member of the Caltech faculty from 1955 until his retirement in 1997, Fay was an authority on China and India.
He also wrote “The Forgotten Army: India’s Armed Struggle for Independence, 1942-1945.”
Born in Paris, Fay earned his bachelor’s degree at Harvard and attended Oxford University on a Rhodes scholarship, earning a second bachelor’s degree.
He was a lieutenant in the U.S. Army in Italy during World War II. After the war, he went back to Harvard, where he earned his doctorate; he taught at Williams College before joining the Caltech faculty.
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