So much so, friends and neighbours are struggling to understand why anyone would want to hurt him.
The 66-year-old Dunedin man was found dead at his Brockville Rd house on Wednesday morning. A 47-year-old Dunedin man appeared in court yesterday charged with Mr Fahey’s murder.
Crime scene investigators yesterday began combing through the Brockville Rd house, and a postmortem examination has begun. Scotty Campbell, a friend and former boss, said Mr Fahey became a close family friend after they spent years working together, painting houses.
"He was very, very close to us. It’s shaken our whole house that he’s died in such a tragic way.
"My head’s spinning. I’m trying to get some paperwork done at the moment and I’ve only managed to write three words."
Mr Campbell described Mr Fahey as a hard-working, reliable man who seldom called in sick, and always had a smile on his face.
"He was a straight shooter. A spade was a spade.
"If I had one way of painting a house, and he had another way of doing it and he knew he was right, he would just listen to me and then go and do it his way anyway.
"And he would do it with a smile on his face . . . he was salt of the earth."
He described Mr Fahey as a very good painter and his ‘‘right-hand man’’ for many years.
"When he worked for me, at one stage I bought him a van. It was a manky old van, but still, he was the first and only employee I ever bought a van for — that was how much trust I had in him.
"He used to enjoy a beer and a roll of the pokies.
"As I left the bar, I’d always pay for another beer or two for him — he was the sort of guy you’d do that for."
When business went quiet, he was no longer able to keep employing Mr Fahey, but they remained very good friends.
Mr Fahey lived alone, but did have brothers and sisters.
Mr Campbell said Mr Fahey was "small in stature, but he had a big heart", particularly when it came to Mr Campbell’s family.
"I’ve got four kids. He saw the three oldest ones grow up from babies.
"The kids would always look forward to ‘Uncle Al’ as they would call him, coming around in the mornings before work.‘‘I’d always make him a cup of tea in the morning and I’d always put a biscuit beside his cup of tea.
"The kids loved it because he would take his [false] teeth out and eat the biscuit.
"They thought it was hilarious because his jaw would disappear into his head. They would just roll around on the couch, laughing."
As a mark of love and respect, the family laid flowers at Mr Fahey’s gate yesterday.
Neighbours Pita Halalilo and wife Iunisi said Mr Fahey always had a smile on his face and was a friendly member of the local community.
"He was smiling every day and would always say hello to me," Mrs Halalilo said.
Mr Halalilo said he would often see Mr Fahey at the pub and they would have a quiet beer and play some pool together.
"He was a nice guy [who could] get on with anybody.
"It’s a shame he’s gone. He was a hell of a nice man — to me anyway.
"This is bad, man. It’s really sad."
