Merrill P. Fay
Year Inducted: 2006
Birthday: May 1, 1936
City/Town: Concord, NH
Growing up in Rochester, Merrill attended Spaulding High School, a member of the Class of 1954. He was Class President in 1953 and 1954, and played varsity basketball, varsity football and was selected to the National Honor Society.
Merrill received the prestigious Elks Award, Renseller Award, and Bosch and Lomb Award.
After graduation from Spaulding, he attended Philips Exeter Academy for a post-graduate year in 1955.
He then attended the University of Michigan, continuing his education there in 1956, 1957 and 1958. Unfortunately, his Dad passed away in the spring of 1958 and Merrill made the decision to take over the family’s boat yard. Of note, Merrill’ father was the hockey coach for Spaulding High School from 1948-1952.
In the early Seventies, he maintained a skating rink within the confines of his boat yard on Lake Winnipesaukee. He flooded the ice and kept it plowed after snow storms.
Merrill became involved in hockey in 1978 in the Lakes Region when his son, Will, was seven years old. He later became Chairman of the Lakes Region Youth Hockey Association and built the first rink in Gilford at Varney Point. It was on public land and Merrill had Bruins’ stars Bobby Orr and Don Awrey come up from Boston to help raise money for the new outdoor rink. A roof went up in 1984 and Merrill purchased a used Zamboni from the Nashua Ice Palace.
In the early to mid-Eighties, he helped out doing whatever he could at the Rochester arena.
In 1989, Merrill formed the non-profit Winnipesaukee Skating Club. He purchased 7 acres of land and did a considerable amount of fund raising towards the $1.5 million goal. When the doors opened in 1994 as the Laconia Ice Arena, it was virtually debt free.
Merrill’s son, Will Fay, is the owner of the Laconia Leafs hockey team which competes in the Atlantic Junior Hockey League.
