There is nothing like the promise of opening a new book, even if that book was a used book purchased from among the pickings at a Highway 80 sale. Back in the cab of the truck, the new purchase was cracked open, and out fell a bonus – a small red book, titled “Personal Bible Verses.”

The diminutive book, 40 pages in a 2” by 2.5” format, had at that very moment fulfilled the intent of the man responsible for distributing these books throughout East Texas, the late R.W. Fair. 

Through the work of his foundation, thousands of such small books of biblical verse were distributed across East Texas.

As current Fair Foundation President Bob Garrett explained, “The intent of Mr. Fair was to salt these books wherever peoples’ daily activities took them, in the hopes that people would pick them up and that they would become a source of inspiration to folks.

Garrett estimated the number of miniatures printed and distributed by the foundation numbered not in the thousands, but in the millions. 

To put these little Bibles into proper context, one has to understand a bit about the man whose sense of philanthropy left a living legacy in his beloved East Texas, throughout the nation and indeed, worldwide.

R.W. Fair was born in Troup in March 1886. The family moved to neighboring Arp when he was a young teenager. There he gained his first employment as a rural mail carrier for the community. 

Garrett related that while delivering mail, much of which was not standard letters but rather postcards, Fair read postcards discussing planting, farming and growing pecans. Using some natural business sense, Fair acquired some acreage in the Tyler vicinity and began what would become the largest paper shell pecan-growing nursery west of the Mississippi River.

Fair came to expand his orchards to include peaches and pears. While the pears did not pan out, he successfully developed a number of peach varieties which flourish in East Texas today – the Fair Beauty, Golden Beauty and Fair Berta.

While it is easy to describe Fair’s business successes, it is perhaps more illustrative of the man to note that as a teenager, he became a steward in the Arp Methodist Church. As Garrett described, Fair was a man whose identity was deeply rooted in Christianity. He lived by the words of Jesus in Luke 12:48, “Much will be required of a person entrusted with much.”  

Fair’s successful pecan operation was expanding, when, in 1930, the Daisy Bradford No. 3 Discovery Well was drilled not far from one of his orchards. The Daisy Bradford No. 3 was the largest domestic oil discovery in American history. 

As Fair himself wrote, “In 1930, the Lord put me in the oil business.” A number of his farms were located right in the East Texas Oilfield. He was the first landowner to drill his own well. Royalties form his initial drilling operations led to an oil business which tapped deposits from Louisiana to New Mexico. The business remains in operation today. 

The second indicator of Fair’s selfless philanthropy is the fact that in 1934, before the oilfield riches were fully realized, Fair and his wife Mattie, founded the Fair Foundation. The foundation was funded through the successful pecan and peach growing operations. 

Once the oilfield profits began to be realized, the foundation’s activities expanded manifold. 

Garrett, who was brought into the Fair Oil Company 37 years ago by R.W.’s son, James, offered three examples of the actions of the foundation.

“R.W. was a big thinker and a committed Christian,” Garrett noted. He explained that the foundation has translated and distributed Bibles around the globe. The foundation has also provided full scholarships for 1,000 clergymen to complete evangelical studies.

Likely the most well-known initiative was the financing of a full-length motion picture, “Day of Triumph,” which was produced by Cecil B. DeMille and was a cinematic production of the life of Christ. It premiered in 1954 and was fully financed by the foundation.

R.W. Fair died in 1965, but the work of the foundation continues apace. Although many organizations benefit from their assistance – from the Lindale Soccer Association to the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation – the most noteworthy action has been the recent gifting of $4 million to the UT Tyler Medical School. The gift will fully fund four-year scholarships for the 40 original students to the new college of medicine. 

Garrett described the rationale of the board in issuing the gift.

“Rural East Texas remains in dire need of adequate medical care,” he said. “Our intention is to invest in East Texas by training and influencing medical professionals to stay in East Texas. There is a direct relationship between family health and family income. We hope to elevate both, in part, through this gift.”

Garrett explained that foundation decisions serve community, educational, non-profit service organizations and faith-based groups.

“There is no big departure from the foundation which R.W. and Mattie operated,” he shared.

The City of Tyler continues to benefit from the vision and generosity of a local pecan man, oil executive and committed Christian. A life-sized statue of R.W. Fair has been erected by the city and may be viewed in the Fair Plaza on the corner of Elm Street and South Broadway.    

And what of the future of the miniature Bible verses booklets? After a lapse of production, the small booklets are once again being printed. They are available from the firm Sowers of Seed. Perhaps soon, they will once again be salted throughout East Texas and beyond.