If there ever was a person who was the definition of a classy gentleman, Webster’s Dictionary would only simply have to put a picture of Kenny Fairchild on the page.

His death on Sunday came way too soon to those who loved him. The world has truly lost a man who is part of a dying breed.

There are way too many words that can be used to describe Kenny Fairchild. But to borrow and re-phrase a quote from Lou Holtz, “If you know him, no words are needed. If you don’t know him, no words will suffice.”

People will see his photo in the Ironton Sports Center as the first Tiger Clan recipient. But he was more than just a trivia question.

Ralph Snead, a great athlete himself, called Kenny Fairchild “the greatest athlete I’ve ever seen come through Ironton High School.”

Great athlete, yes. But he was even more.

He served the public for years as a dentist. His patient dearly loved him and he really cared about them.

Having grown up poor on a farm, losing his mother at a young age and being raised by his older brothers and sisters, he never forgot their love and kindness and he tried to treat others the same way.

As he was being taken out of his home on Saturday morning by the EMS, he raised up and apologized to the technicians for making them have to come and get him.

That was Kenny Fairchild.

Patients who were poor or struggling to pay didn’t get a notice in the mail. He often took a basket of fruit or a homemade pie as payment.

One elderly lady asked what she owed and he asked, “How old are you?”

She answered, “82.”

“You’re living to be 82 is all you owe me. Now live to be 83.”

He served on the Ironton City School Board in the early 1970s and was elected by using only one sign in his front yard.

People knew him and loved him. They knew he was a fair, honest, kind and moral man.

Along with the late dentist A.D. Markins, Kenny suggested to then athletic director Mike Burcham to purchase a Greyhound bus.

The state officials told Burcham the bus had to have the back door painted yellow. Kenny told Burcham to paint it orange and black and if they ask, just tell them, “I thought that was yellow. It’ll buy you another two years.”

They later got Judge Kenneth Ater to make a ruling that gave them an exemption.

“Kenny and the other board members just used common sense. If they thought something needed done, they told you and they were right. But they only wanted to do what was the right thing for everyone. They weren’t in it for anything they could get out of it. Everything was for all the kids,” said Burcham.

I remember one time he took my son, Ryan, along with Dick Griswold to watch Ohio State play Boston College in the Kickoff Classic in New Jersey. Ryan was in the first grade at St. Lawrence. They drove all night to get home and pulled up in front of the house 15 minutes before school started. Ryan changed clothes and went to school.

Ryan thought nothing of it. His papa loved doing things like that and he loved the fact his grandson loved doing those things, too.

Besides serving on the school board, Kenny coached little league baseball and basketball. He loved athletics, but even moreso he loved those people involved. Even though he was a die-hard Ironton fan, it wasn’t unusual for him to attend a game at another school because “I have a patient who has a daughter in the band.”

When Kenny Fairchild reaches the gates of heaven, you can bet there will be a lot of people there who will come to see him.

Heaven just got a lot classier.

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Jim Walker is sports editor of The Ironton Tribune.