FOR THE AGES
Max M. Fisher, 1908-2005
We were ,
Blessed
Max Fisher's daughter and son
reminisce about their "Daddy."
Max and Marjorie
Fisher, 2000
HARRY KIRSBAUM
Staff Writer
notables
"This is not just a sad day,
but it is a day to celebrate
that which has been such a
giving lift. To whom much
is given from whom much is
expected. And he certainly
lived up to that."
— Gov. Jennifer Granholm
3/10
2005
18
n the world stage, Max M. Fisher
was a philanthropist, a business and
Jewish leader, a diplomat and an
adviser to presidents and prime ministers.
To his children, he was "Daddy."
On the day before Max Fisher was laid
to rest, daughter and son-in--law Jane and
D. Larry Sherman, and son, Phillip, sat
down with the JN to speak frankly of the
private side of the man known as the
"quiet diplomat."
"I lived a different life with my father than
everyone else," said Jane, who referred to
herself as an only child until she was 14
years old. "He was still trying to start a busi-
ness, my mother was very ill, he was taking
care of her and trying to raise me with a
minimum of help and outside influences."
Sylvia Krell Fisher, who suffered from
rheumatic fever as a teenager, married Max
Fisher in 1934 and died in 1952 of con-
gestive heart failure.
"He was there for me as much as a
father could be. Was he hands-on? No,"
she said.
"He wanted a son," she said jokingly. "I
went to every hockey, football and baseball
game. He took me out to the back yard and
we played football."
Mr. Fisher married Marjorie Switow in
1953, and adopted Mary and Phillip. With a
O
successful oil business, he could finally
have the time to become involved in com-
munal activities. His life became much more
involved.
"He gave to us all things that made us
comfortable," Phillip said. "But from an
emotional standpoint, his priorities were the
community, his business and the networks
he was establishing.
"He really had grand thoughts about
helping humanity and, indeed, he succeed-
ed at them," Phillip said. "He knew that he
needed networks of people to execute
those plans, and those networks take a lot
of time."
Jane said her father never shared his
vision "in so many words" with the family.
"He didn't say, 'I'm out to save the world. -
"We'd sit at the dinner table, and we'd
ask him a question about some political
event in the world, and he'd mumble,"
Phillip said. "We'd say, 'We can't hear you,
Dad.' He held his cards real close to the
vest as a rule, even with his family."
Phillip also said his father was very proud
of his family, loved to showcase his children,
but didn't vocalize that pride to them.
That changed when he fell and broke his
hip in his Palm Beach home in 2002, Phillip
said. "After that point, understanding that
he had a condition, his priorities changed
180 degrees. He knew what was coming."
"It was more emotional. He was vocalizing
his love for us, where before, you knew he
loved you, he just didn't say it to you,"
Phillip said.
Satellites
"This man had boundless energy, and he
channeled that energy into other people,"
Phillip said. "If he came to ask you for
something, he'd say this is what I want you
to do. And you'd just go off and do it as fast
as you could."
Son-in-law Larry Sherman said, "If you
procrastinated on it, he drove you out of
your mind. When he wanted something, it
wasn't tomorrow, it was right now."
Phillip said a family member expected to
be grilled for information if his father was
approached for a donation.
"You had to know every detail," Phillip
said. "If he gave to a cause, he wanted to
know every aspect to it, because he knew
that others would follow."
The family was included in his father's
network of "thousands," who helped him
help others, Phillip said.
Think of his father as a planet, he sug-
gested, and thousands of people circling
around him like satellites.
Each satellite had a credibility scale.