Shelter Island Profile: An Island toymaker whose wooden trains run on time
In the decades Stephen Fay has spent on Shelter Island, many local institutions have been important to him, but above all, he loves the Recycling Center.
In the Goody Pile and the (now off limits) construction and metals section, Mr. Fay, who never stops designing and building things, says he’s found “Belle Epoque glass, blown, polished and wrapped in moldy paper; standing sinks for both of our bathrooms; deck lumber; doors … so many nice things. Reusing stuff is the best form of recycling.”
Mr. Fay is a former art director of the Wall Street Journal Weekend section and a toymaker since 2007. He and his wife, Margaux King, who works as an editor, have lived on Shelter Island since 1991, and for 10 years were weekenders. After Sept. 11, 2001, they moved to their house full-time with their son Tom.
Mr. Fay’s parents were college professors at Molloy College in Nassau County. After high school on Long Island, he went to Pratt Institute in Brooklyn to study art, graduating in 1976. He loved 1960s art, and conceptual art, but became disillusioned after winning a Ford Foundation scholarship that exposed him to the business side of fine art.
“I retrenched,” he said. “I got a job doing demolition.”
After nearly losing a hand in an industrial accident, he worked for a large insurance company doing consumer publications, and at Calvin Klein’s in-house agency.
He started his own company doing type design, and corporate design work, and worked for People magazine, and Time, in the 1990s, and at the American Foundation for the Blind where he met Margaux King.
Their son Tom was born in 1995, and Mr. Fay remembers the day well. “It was hot, he was late. Our apartment was on East 17th Street, so we walked to NYU. Slowly. Margaux gave birth, we made sure to tell a joke — we wanted a funny kid — and then our friends came and took us all home in a cab.”
Tom who is a musician (guitar and harmonica) graduated from the Shelter Island High School in 2014, went to St Johns and works as a producer at WLNG.
Mr. Fay was art director of the Wall Street Journal Weekend in 2001, when the attacks of 9/11 took place across the street from the World Financial Center where his office was located. Although he was unhurt, and his family was safe, the experience was intensely scary.
“They put us in hotels in New Brunswick, and we all got a Pulitzer for putting out the issue,” he said. “If you have a trauma like that, it’s nice to be busy. It’s nice to know what you are doing next at all times. Everyone suffers in their own way. I got recognized for it, and all of that was healing.”
When Tom was in elementary school, Mr. Fay made wooden trains for his son, who was a fan of railroads, and painted them to look like subway cars. At the time, Mr. Fay was looking around for work, and his son suggested that he could sell the toy subway trains.
He sent sketches of his trains to the Transit Museum, where the idea got the attention of the marketing person for the MTA Transit Museum Store, and in 2007, “Munipals,” a line of wooden trains, buses, tracks and stations, created by Stephen Fay and his son Tom, debuted.
“A lot of adults don’t get why you would spend that much for wooden trains,” Mr. Fay said. ”But I get love letters from little boys.”
Facsimile trains for New Jersey Transit, the Pennsylvania SEPTA system, Chicago’s CTA, and an online store (munipals.com) followed. Now the models are bestsellers in all three locations of the MTA’s Transit Museum, and there’s a YouTube community of young Munipals enthusiasts who make videos of their wooden trains and make money doing so.
“I have amassed a set of skills that enabled me to do this. I think visually and I can transfer that to numbers,” Fay said. “I like the thinking part of art.”
Mr. Fay and Ms. King share cooking duties, which he considers another outlet for his creativity. “A creative life is a fulfilling life,” he said. “You’ve got to find it where you can.”
The dinner table seems to be an auspicious place for creative expression in their household; the idea to make toys started at the dinner table when his son suggested it.
On the Munipals website the sharp-eyed will see the legs of the family sofa and throw rug framing the wooden subway cars and station platforms on the home page, just across from the “Shop Now” button.
Lightning Round — Stephen Fay
Favorite place on Shelter Island? The Hay Beach Causeway.
Favorite place not on Shelter Island? The city.
When was the last time you were elated? Seeing Willy Nelson and Bob Dylan perform at Jones Beach.
Favorite movie or book? My son turned us on to the Japanese Zatoichi films, made in the 60s and 70s. The hero is a blind swordsman.
Favorite food? Squid.
Favorite person, living or dead, who is not a member of the family? Jim Hayward. When I started my business, I’d go to him to see what he thought. A good mentor. Positive, someone who doesn’t dwell on anything that would set you back.
Most respected elected official? Joe Biden.
