Paul Fay

The friendship Paul Fay forged with John F. Kennedy began during a touch-football game in 1942 at the PT Boat School in Melville, R.I. Fay, a California native who died Sept. 23 at 91, had just enlisted in the U.S. Navy and was tossing the pigskin with a few classmates when a skinny junior officer named Jack asked if he could play.

The chance encounter would shape both men's lives. After serving in the same squadron during World War II--and recovering from Japanese attacks in the same South Pacific--island hut--the two men became lifelong confidants. When Kennedy moved into the White...

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