Kristopher Wayne Fairbanks

Two years today our sweet little brother Kris returned to his Heavenly Father. We love and miss you but know we will see you again.

Bracken's talk from his funeral:

I am grateful and honored that I have a chance to spend a brief moment to pay tribute to my little brother Kristopher and his life. I pray that the spirit will be with me as I hope to give each of you a better knowledge of the wonderful person and example Kris was to me and our family.

Kristopher - The guy that could never figure out how high or how low to wear his pants. For the first 10 years of Kris’s life he pulled his pants up about 18” too high. For the last 10 years of his life, Kris let his pants always hang down about 18” too low.

Kristopher - The older brother. Wayne remembered a time when he was going over to pick up Kris when he was probably about 10 years old. He was driving his truck and noticed that Kris and Cameron were riding their bikes around the neighborhood and Cameron fell. Kris immediately jumped off his bike to help his younger brother.

Kristopher - The meat lover. I hope they have live cattle in heaven because if not, I don’t know what Kris will eat. He was usually running a little late to family dinners at Outback but we knew what to order him. The largest steak on the menu as rare as it could come.

Kristopher - The outdoorsman. Whether it was wave running in Lake Powell, camping, fishing, snowboarding or just taking a vehicle into the mountains digging, Kristopher loved the outdoors. Many times the peaceful drive up the canyon turned into an overnight campout waiting for the tow truck the next day because he wouldn’t back down from any hill or climb. We thought about putting winches on all the family vehicles to cut back on tow truck fees it happened so many times.

Kristopher - The guy who never quit. I remember a trip we took to Hawaii a number of years ago. The most memorable part of the vacation for me was Kris and I learning how to surf together. He would not give up. Hours and hours into the “learning process” I was ready to call it a day and go take a nap on the beach but he wanted to stay out in the ocean and take advantage of the time we had to surf.

Kristopher - The hairstylist. We are not quite sure if Kristopher was meant to be in the family business of hair styling but it sure seemed like it. He took longer on his hair that his sisters and used a lot more product! One morning Kiley sat outside the door of the bathroom counting the squirts of hairspray used for the morning do. 129 – and now we know why his hair looked so good even while driving with the truck windows down.

Kristopher - The uncle. As Kris' obituary said, little children were drawn to Kris. Hallee and Jack absolutely adored Kris. He had a special way with them, and sure loved them. Hallee's most fond memory of Kris was the afternoon that just he and her went in his truck to Crest to get a Bug juice together, and then as Hallee says, went to get some stuff at Home Depot. He will be greatly missed by his neices and nephew.

Kristopher - The student. I’m not sure how many of you were aware of the grades that Kristopher pulled, but very rarely was there even an A- on his report card. He was very academically intelligent.

Kristopher - The guy who you could hear coming from a mile away. More important that having a vehicle that ran, was having a vehicle with a loud stereo. Every Christmas when you asked Kris what he wanted, more often than not it was an amplifier or some speakers.


Kristopher - The mechanic. Whether he was fixing his truck after wrecking it on a few different occasions or helping a family member with car problems, Kris could always been found under the hood of a vehicle with a wrench in hand ready to fix anything.

Kristopher - The protector. Kiley remembers many occasions when Kris was there to help her through hard times. Whether it was a drink run or just talking on the phone, he was always a great support to her.

Kristopher - The painter. If I said he was the fastest painter in town, too many people in this room would bust up laughing. It seems like he has painted more garage floors, doors and walls that any one company in the valley. Half the problem was, he wanted to chit chat while on the job so a 2 days job always turned into a 2 week job but boy did it look good.

Kristopher – The guy who thought his two-toned white truck with the blue hood was way cooler than it really was. Enough said.


Kristopher - The perfectionist. It was unbelievable how clean, tidy and perfect Kristopher always kept his stuff. If you were to ever look in his truck, his clothes he always packed around were pressed and hanging in the back. His cd’s were always in their case and in the back of the truck, his tools were stacked nice and neat. Everything he did, he did with care and perfection.

Kristopher - The plumber. For many years, if you needed to find Kris, he could be found on a construction site plumbing with his dad. He learned by watching and working side by side with Wayne and I can only imagine how great of an experience that was for both of them.

Kristopher - The communicator. I don’t know how to put this other than just bluntly but it was always the joke in the family and we always laughed about Kris calling each of us to chat will sitting on the toilet. It was his way of keeping in touch with each of the family members. He would go down the list of phone numbers until he finally reached someone to occupy his time. It was almost a competition in the family to see which one of us got the call.

Kristopher - The musician. Not only did Kris have a good singing voice, he could also play the guitar quite well. In fact, I’m quite sure he is entertaining the heavenly hosts right now with his rendition of Adam Sandler’s “Lunchlady Land”.

Kristopher - The grateful. Of all the things we have talked about as a family over the past week, it would be how grateful and thankful Kris always was. It didn’t matter if you bought him a 99 cent Jr. Cheeseburger at Wendy’s, you would have thought you just gave him a million dollars. No small act or kind deed ever went towards Kris without him telling you how much it meant to him and how thankful he was.

Kristopher, my younger brother. If anyone in here has ever grown up with only sisters, you will appreciate my point of finally getting another boy in the family. I always wanted a brother and at the age of 9, I finally got one in my life. Kris was my little buddy and I can’t wait until the day when we can reunite again. We love you and will miss you bud.

I just want to close by saying how grateful I am for the gospel in my life and the knowledge I have that I will be able to reunite with my younger brother and my family again. I am grateful for our Heavenly Father’s plan which allows us all to return to his presence with our families and I am so grateful for that knowledge.