James Fairbanks was born in January 1952, the son of Thomas and Marie Fairbanks. He was born and raised in northern Minnesota on the White Earth Indian Reservation, near Pine Point. James Fairbanks graduated from Park Rapids High School in 1970 and enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps in November of the same year. A Marine Corporal, Fairbanks was honorably discharged in September 1972. Upon returning to Minnesota, he worked for several years as a welder for the American Iron and Supply Company and served as union steward until December 1976. Fairbanks returned to active duty, enlisting in the U.S. Navy at the start of 1977. He completed a two-year tour and was honorably discharged in 1979. Fairbanks then returned again to Minnesota where he worked again as a welder until he re-enlisted in the U.S. Navy in 1986. He would remain with the Navy’s Seabees for the rest of his military career. He was selected to lead the Seabees in 2005, a position he held through 2008. Fairbanks later served as Command Master Chief, Naval Construction Battalion Center in Gulfport, Miss., where he lived with his wife Denise. While there, Fairbanks helped to open Gulfport’s Armed Forces Retirement Home in 2010. Fairbanks died in Alabama in 2011 at the age of 59.
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