Harry W. Fawkes, former head of the Bucks County Republican Committee and life member of the Croydon Fire Company, passed away Tuesday evening at the age of 83.
Fawkes led the county Republican party for 40 years, before retiring last year.
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“His commitment to the community and the residents of Bucks County will be remembered by all who have had the pleasure to work with him,” read a statement from the GOP.
Congressman Mike Fitzpatrick released the following statement:
“I am incredibly fortunate and honored to have known Harry Fawkes. On a personal level, his friendship and advice made me a stronger public servant and a better person. In his role as Republican Chairman, Harry was selfless and magnanimous; everything he did was to the benefit our County where he was born, married, raised his family, started his business, served his community in elected office. Harry was recognized as an effective leader and decision-maker because he led the party based on principles and worked unselfishly to find common ground. His only request of me as a public servant was to take care of Bucks County. We will never see another like Harry again. Our community has lost a giant of a man – strong in stature, in principle, in humility and graciousness.”
Fawkes was profiled in numerous stories in the Philadelphia Inquirer and Bucks County Courier Times over the years.
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“Presidents Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush made courtesy calls to him. The state’s powerbrokers and politicians consult him. And even Democrats who can’t beat him sometimes end up joining his party,” Inquirer reporter Leonard N. Fleming wrote in a 2005 profile.
Fawkes grew up in the Croydon section of Bristol Township and ran Penn Jersey Industrial Waste with his wife. The business was sold in 1986 after the Environmental Protection Agency began investigating him for violations, PhillyBurbs.com reports.
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The Bucks County political icon is survived by his children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren, according to a statement from the county GOP. Mary Fawkes, his wife, passed away in 2012.
No word on services has yet been announced.
