Sherman Fairchild died on March 28, 1971 at the Roosevelt Hospital in New York after a long illness. Fairchild was buried in Greenwood Cemetery in Oneonta, Otsego County, New York. He is buried within walking distance of the home he grew up in, now the Oneonta Masonic Lodge.

He left bequests to more than 50 relatives, friends and former employees. Most of the $200+ million estate went to two charitable foundations he formed during his lifetime, the Fairchild Foundation and the Sherman Fairchild Foundation. Specific bequests to organizations were Roosevelt Hospital, $300,000; the Salvation Army, $200,000 and the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, in memory of his late aunt, May Fairchild; $100,000.

The assets of the Sherman Fairchild Foundation, headquartered in Chevy Chase, Maryland, have grown to over $500 million in recent years. The Walter Burke family continue to run the Sherman Fairchild Foundation.