Ernestine Hudak Fagan died in Colorado Springs, Colorado, on November 1, 2020 at the age of 100. She was born on February 6, 1920, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to John T. Hudak and the former Ernestine Marshik. She was married for 69 years to Brigadier General (USAF) George V. Fagan who died in 2012. Mrs. Fagan was a graduate of the Philadelphia High School for Girls, Temple University (BA), and the Drexel University School of Library Science (MA). She was employed as a librarian at Villanova University (1942-1943) and in the Philadelphia Public School System (1943-1949).
Mrs. Fagan moved to Aurora, Colorado, in 1955 when her husband became a member of the original faculty of the U.S. Air Force Academy at its temporary site in Denver. The Fagan family moved to the Academy’s permanent site near Colorado Springs when it opened in 1958. After most of her children were grown, she returned to work as the librarian for the Colorado School for the Deaf and Blind in Colorado Springs from 1967 to 1978.
Mrs. Fagan volunteered for many community activities in Colorado. While living in Aurora (1955-1958), she was the founding president of the St. Therese Catholic School PTA, director of the CCD Program, Parish Safety Chairman, Girl Scout Leader and Cub Scout Den Mother. She was also a member of the Denver Archdiocesan Council of Catholic Women and served as the Catholic Foreign Relief Chairman for the State of Colorado.
At the Air Force Academy (1958-1970), she was founding president of the Academy’s Catholic Ladies Sodality, first treasurer of Academy’s Officers Wives Club, neighborhood chairman of the Wagon Wheel Council of the Girl Scouts, and founding librarian of the patients’ library at the Air Force Academy Hospital.
In Colorado Springs, where she lived after her husband’s retirement from the Air Force in 1970, Mrs. Fagan was founding librarian for the Horticultural Art Society and a member of the League of Women Voters, the American Association of University Women, and the Women’s Educational Society of the Colorado College.
In addition to her husband, Mrs. Fagan was preceded in death by her two brothers, John T. Hudak III and Richard J. Hudak. She is survived by four sons, Rev. George V. Fagan, Jr. of Colorado Springs, Colorado, William J. Fagan of Cheyenne, Wyoming, John E. Fagan of Reston, Virginia, and Terence P. (Renny) Fagan of Golden, Colorado; one daughter, Ernestine (Tina) Barber of Springfield, Virginia; five grandchildren; and six great-grandchildren.
Rev. George V. Fagan, Jr., will celebrate a Mass of Christian Burial for his mother and burial will be at the U.S. Air Force Academy Cemetery.
