FOR THE AGES
Max
M. Fisher, 1908-2005
The Marathon Oil Company Family
remembers
Sadness and
Max M. Fisher
Joy
and his contributions
to the Detroit Community.
M
MARATHON
M
(MARATHOP
)
Oil Company
"Is A /ant,'
MARATHON ASHLAND
.s=peedway
SPA SUPERAMERICA.
-
Petroleum LLC
952630
AMERICAN COMMITTEE FOR THE
WEIZMANN INSTITUTE OF SCIENCE
lnth tnrlmn
In Memory of Our Dear Friend,
MAX FISHER
Dr. Albert Willner
Martin S. Kraar
Robert B. Machinist
President
Executive
Vice President
Chairman
3/17
2005
14
seeing my family and friends all in the
same room.
Joy. Sadness. Joy. Sadness. And honor
throughout.
To have my brother and nephew sleep
over, then drop them off, then
to sit with the Fisher family and
listen to stories about Max.
To get a third surprise party in as many
days, then wake up and attend the funeral
where I got the chance to talk to dignitaries,
politicians and people who were affected in
some way by Max Fisher.
The paper came out on time and, as you
can see, the tributes to Max are still coming
in. Such was the man.
On the day Max died, I took the turn to
the back nine.
From what I've heard, turning 50 is one
of those huge events in a person's life. A
time for reflection, of looking back at one's
accomplishments as much as what the
future holds.
I wonder what Max thought when he
turned 50.1 don't think he ever looked back.
So neither will I, longingly.
I'll always see my 50th birthday as a sin-
gle point in time when my professional and
personal life merged.
A time I'll never forget. IVF
Last Call
M) Marathon
(
ax M. Fisher died on my
50th birthday. I was sitting in
a restaurant in the midst of
a surprise lunch with about a dozen
colleagues when we heard the news
about Max.
We had been preparing for
this event since 2002, when
he was in the hospital
with a broken hip and
a staph infection.
Preparing isn't quite
the same as prepared,
though. We felt the
magnitude of the loss
to our community
when we hit the doors
at the Detroit Jewish
HARRY
News
on our return.
KIRSBAUM
Phones
were ring-
Columnist
ing, editorial meetings
were held and plans
were made for what would be a working
weekend for nearly everyone at the DJN,
and a special issue for everyone in the
Detroit Jewish community.
We put out a similar issue under similar
circumstances when Bingham Farms phi-
lanthropist and Jewish communal leader
David Hermelin died the day before
Thanksgiving on Nov. 22, 2000.
Then I received the honor of writing the
lead obituary and interviewing the
Hermelin family for that issue, and now I
was doubly honored, but not too sur-
prised, to get the same assignments for
the Fisher family.
Max died at age 96 on March 3, a
Thursday. I arranged to talk to the family,
then cover the funeral on Sunday and write
the stories on Monday.
I hadn't planned on anything big for my
birthday besides sharing dinner — with
cousins on Friday, with my attorney and her
family on Saturday — so I expected plenty
of time for work.
What I didn't know was that the surprises
were just beginning.
My mother, brother and nephew flew in
from Florida to surprise me on Friday. My
attorney arranged another surprise party of
some 30 family and friends at her house on
Saturday.
Every incidence of sadness in covering
the death of the legendary Max Fisher
was followed by the truly unexpected joy of
951080
Harry Kirsbaum's e-mail address is
hkirsbaum@thejewishnews.com .
Max at 50