Candlelight vigil planned at Keene Middle School for Donna Fairbanks

Tuesday, June 30, 2026 at 8:15 PM

Keene Middle School will host a candlelight vigil at 8 p.m. on Thursday, July 9 to honor former teacher Donna Fairbanks,

Keene Middle School will host a candlelight vigil at 8 p.m. on Thursday, July 9, to honor former teacher Donna Fairbanks, according to N.H. School Administrative Unit 29. The gathering will take place on the school track at 167 Maple Ave.

Organizers said the event is intended as a community remembrance and a chance to show support for Fairbanks’ family and friends. Candles will be provided, and albums will be available for attendees to leave notes, drawings, cards and photographs that will later be delivered to her family, the SAU said.

Fairbanks, 70, spent decades teaching math and other subjects at Keene Middle School after joining the faculty in 1980, according to her obituary. She was nominated for the N.H. Teacher of the Year Award in 2008 and later received the Keene School District Exceptional Teacher Award in 2017.

Police found Fairbanks and her husband, Chandler V. Chip Fairbanks, 72, dead on June 16 during a welfare check at their home in Keene. Investigators said the case appears to be a murder-suicide in which Chandler Fairbanks shot and killed his wife before taking his own life. Fairbanks had retired in 2018 but continued to work in the district as a substitute teacher.