Max Fisher is presented with the Fred M Butzel Memorial Award at the Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Detroit's annual dinner in 1964. Wife Marjorie is at his side.
Max Fisher Highlights
July_15, 1908: Max Fisher is born
1938: Fisher makes a deal with the
to William and Mollie in
Pittsburgh.
Ohio Oil Company to supply Aurora
with oil during World War II.
1909: The Fisher family moves to
1951: Fisher is elected to board of
directors of the Jewish Community
Center in Detroit.
Salem, Ohio.
1930: Fisher graduates from
Ohio State University. Joins his
father's oil-recycling business,
Keystone Oil Refining Company,
in Detroit.
1932: Fisher arranges a joint venture
between William's company and
Aurora Gasoline to refine Michigan
crude oil.
1934: Fisher marries Sylvia Krell.
They have one child, Jane. Sylvia
dies in 1952.
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102 Detroit Jewish News
1953: Fisher marries Marjorie
Switow, who has two children, Mary
and Phillip, from a previous mar-
riage. They have two children
together: Julie and Marjorie.
1959: Fisher negotiates a merger of
Aurora and Ohio Oil, now known
as the Marathon Oil Company.
1961: Fisher is the first Jew elected
chairman of the Detroit United
Foundation Torch Drive.
1964: Fisher is elected chairman of
the United Foundation (now United
Way Community Services).
1965: Fisher becomes head of the
Jewish Welfare Federation.
1967: Fisher is elected president of
the United Jewish Appeal; he
becomes finance chairman of
Michigan Gov. George Romney's
presidential campaign.
1969: Fisher is elected to head the
Council of Jewish Federations and
Welfare Funds; he is named advisor
to President Richard Nixon on
Jewish affairs; he is elected chairman
of New Detroit.
1971: Fisher is elected chairman of
the Jewish Agency for Israel.
1975: Fisher becomes finance chair-
man of President Gerald Ford's election
committee; he, shopping mall magnate
A. Alfred Taubman and Henry Ford II
buy part of the Irvine Ranch property
in California in the biggest private real-
estate transaction at the time.
1977: Fisher is invited by President
Jimmy Carter to watch the signing
of the Camp David accords.
1981: Fisher is named to the Task
Force on Private Sector Initiatives by
President Ronald Reagan.
1983: Fisher, Taubman and Henry
Ford II buy the Sotheby auction house
in London.