The career and research contributions of Richard R. Fay.

For over 50 years, Richard R. (Dick) Fay made major contributions to our understanding of vertebrate hearing. Much of Dick's work focused on hearing in fishes and, particularly, goldfish, as well as a few other species, in a substantial body of work on sound localization mechanisms. However, Dick's focus was always on using his studies to try and understand bigger issues of vertebrate hearing and its evolution. This article is slightly adapted from an article that Dick wrote in 2010 on the closure of the Parmly Hearing Institute at Loyola University Chicago. Except for small modifications and minor updates, the words and ideas herein are those of Dick.