Born October 20, 1829; Sodus, New York
Died March 27, 1903; Chicago, Illinois
“Few men of his day did more than N.K. Fairbank in promoting the religious, educational and philanthropic life of our city, thus making the community a better place to live in.” — Philo Adams Otis, The Chicago Symphony Orchestra: Its Organization, Growth and Development, 1891–1924
Nathaniel Kellogg Fairbank was the first president of the Orchestral Association, the Chicago Orchestra’s governing body. Crowned the “Lord of Lard” by the Chicago Daily Tribune in 1883, Fairbank was the founder and owner of the NK Fairbank Company, which manufactured lard, soap and cleaning products in connection with Chicago’s meatpacking industries. The company revolutionized soap technology and created the modern European household mainstay Fairy Soap, exported through Fairbank’s international offices in the United Kingdom and Germany.
The Chicago street Fairbanks Court commemorates a lengthy legal battle between Fairbank and the infamous Chicago squatter George “Cap’n” Streeter. On dubious legal grounds, Streeter claimed to own much of the lakeshore after his boat was apparently stranded on a Lake Michigan sandbank near Chicago’s north side. Fairbank and other lakefront property owners spent nearly 30 years attempting to evict Streeter from the area now known as Streeterville.
Fairbank held multiple civic positions in Chicago. A member of the Chicago Club, he was president of the University of Chicago Board of Trustees and a Senior Officer of the Board of Trade, in addition to being a patron of St. Luke’s Hospital and the Newsboys’ Home, a charity for orphans. Fairbank became one of the founding trustees of the newly formed Orchestral Association in 1890, and remained in the post until his resignation in 1894.
Fairbank’s great-granddaughter Laura Fairbank Sudler (1939–2021) was married to CSOA Life Trustee Louis C. Sudler, Jr., the son of Louis C. Sudler (1903–1992), who also served as president of the Orchestral Association from 1966 until 1971, chairman from 1971 until 1976 and chairman emeritus from 1976 until 1992.
