{{Short description|American journalist (1869–1958)}}{{Infobox person | image = Fay-Fuller.jpg | caption = Pictured around 1890 | birth_name = Edwina Fay Fuller | birth_date = October 10, 1869 | birth_place = New Jersey | death_date = May 27, 1958 | death_place = Santa Monica, California | burial_place = Sleepy Hollow Cemetery | occupation = Journalist, mountaineer and schoolteacher | organization = Washington Alpine Club, Tacoma Alpine Club, Mazamas mountaineering club | known_for = First woman to summit Mount Rainier | spouse = Fritz von Briesen | parents = Ann E. and Edward N. Fuller | relatives = Arthur von Briesen (father in law) | honours = Fay Peak }}
'''Edwina Fay Fuller'''{{efn|Older sources record her first name as Edwina;<ref name=harv /><ref>{{cite book | last=Leng | first=C.W. | last2=Davis | first2=W.T. | title=Staten Island and Its People: A History, 1609-1929 | publisher=Lewis Historical Publishing Company | series=Staten Island and Its People: A History, 1609-1929 | issue=v. 5 | year=1933 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Is8pAQAAMAAJ | access-date=September 2, 2023 | page=}}</ref> modern sources state that it was Evelyn.<ref name=tpl /> In most publications during her life, she was referred to as Fay.}} (October 10, 1869 – May 27, 1958) was an American journalist, mountaineer and schoolteacher. In 1890 she became the first woman to reach the summit of Mount Rainier.
==Biography== Fay Fuller was born in 1869 in New Jersey to Ann E. and Edward N. Fuller.<ref name=bragg>{{cite book|title=More than Petticoats: Remarkable Washington Women|edition=2nd|publisher=Globe Pequot|year=2010|first=Lynn|last=Bragg}}</ref> In 1882, when Fuller was 12 years old, her family relocated to Tacoma, Washington, where she began to explore the wilderness.<ref name=tpl>{{cite web|url=http://mtn.tpl.lib.wa.us/climbs/climbing/people/fuller.asp|title=Fay Fuller|publisher=Tacoma Public Library|year=2002|accessdate=April 19, 2014|archive-date=November 20, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181120075721/http://mtn.tpl.lib.wa.us/climbs/climbing/people/fuller.asp|url-status=dead}}</ref> After graduating from high school, Fuller began teaching at the age of 15, eventually moving to work in Yelm, Washington. While teaching in Yelm, her school was visited by P. B. Van Trump, one of the first climbers to ascend Mount Rainier, with whom she became friends and who would inspire her to climb Rainier herself.<ref name=bragg/>
=== Mount Rainier === Fuller made her first attempt on Rainier in 1887 at age 18, reaching an elevation of approximately {{convert|8,600|ft|m}} and setting a goal to someday "climb to the summit of the great peak".<ref name=tpl/> In 1890 she was invited by Van Trump to join a climbing party for a second attempt at climbing the mountain. On the afternoon of August 10, she and four teammates reached Columbia Crest, Rainier's highest summit, making her the first woman to have climbed the mountain.<ref name=bragg/> The next climbing party on the mountain found Fuller's hair pins on the route and joked that this proved "a woman really had made it to the summit".<ref name=bragg/>
=== Journalism === Fuller gave up teaching to become a journalist like her father, an editor of several Tacoma newspapers, with whom she found her first reporting job as the first female reporter for the ''Tacoma Ledger''.<ref name=bragg/> Following her successful ascent of Mount Rainier, she was given a column titled "Mountain Murmurs" in which she covered mountaineering social events near Paradise, Washington and accounts by earlier climbers of Rainier.<ref name=tpl/> She also played a significant role in developing the Pacific Northwest climbing community: she helped to found the Washington Alpine Club in 1891, the Tacoma Alpine Club in 1893, and the Mazamas mountaineering club in Portland, Oregon in 1894.<ref name=tpl/>
=== Later life and legacy === Fuller left Tacoma in 1900 to continue her career in journalism in Chicago, Washington, D.C., and New York City. In New York, she met and married Fritz von Briesen, an attorney.<ref name="harv">{{cite book | last=Thayer | first=W.R. | title=The Harvard Graduates' Magazine | publisher=Harvard Graduates' Magazine Association | issue=v. 14 | year=1906 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=N4ABAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA351 | access-date=September 2, 2023 | page=351}}</ref><ref name="history">{{cite web|url=http://www.historylink.org/index.cfm?DisplayPage=output.cfm&file_id=7786|first=Charles|last=Hamilton|title=Fay Fuller becomes the first woman known to reach the summit of Mount Rainier on August 10, 1890|date=May 29, 2006|publisher=HistoryLink|accessdate=April 19, 2014}}</ref> They later moved to Santa Monica, California. After inheriting land from her father in law after his death, Mrs. von Briesen donated it to the city of New York, which became Von Briesen Park.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Von Briesen Park Highlights : NYC Parks |url=https://www.nycgovparks.org/parks/von-briesen-park/history |access-date=2025-03-20 |website=www.nycgovparks.org}}</ref> Fuller died in 1958 at the age of 88.<ref name="bragg" />
Fay Peak in Mount Rainier National Park was named after her.<ref name="history" /> In 2021, Fuller was inducted into the Tacoma-Pierce County Sports Hall of Fame.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2016-01-29 |title=Inductees |url=https://banquetofchampions.wordpress.com/inductees/ |access-date=2025-03-20 |website=Tribute to Champions |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Stirling |first=Shirley |date=2023-05-26 |title=Bronka, Holocaust Concentration Camp Survivor, Mountaineer & Oldest Mt. Rainier Record Holder |url=https://www.thejoltnews.com/stories/bronka-holocaust-concentration-camp-survivor-mountaineer-oldest-mt-rainier-record-holder,10705 |access-date=2025-03-20 |website=The JOLT News Organization, a 501(c)(3) Nonprofit |language=en}}</ref>
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Fuller, Fay}} Category:1869 births Category:1958 deaths Category:American women educators Category:American women journalists Category:19th-century American sportswomen Category:American female mountain climbers Category:Journalists from Washington (state) Category:Schoolteachers from Washington (state) Category:Writers from Tacoma, Washington Category:Sportspeople from Tacoma, Washington Category:Burials at Sleepy Hollow Cemetery