Henry Hackett (“Jerry”) Fisher of Simsbury passed away on May 28, 2015, at age 82, after a battle with cancer. The eldest son of Harry J. and Mary H. Fisher, he was brought up in West Hartford, CT, where he resided for 65 years in all. He was a graduate of Trinity-Pawling School in Pawling, New York where he was a basketball standout and held a soccer scoring record. He graduated from Washington & Lee University in Lexington, Virginia, where he was a history major and proud member of Sigma Nu fraternity.
As a break from college, he volunteered for the 503rd Airborne Infantry Regiment, 11th Airborne Division, based at Fort Campbell, Kentucky. He qualified as a parachutist and made numerous non-combat jumps, including a winter exercise in Alaska, where he was stalked by a moose that had apparently infiltrated from Siberia. He returned to W&L after realizing that the skill of jumping out of a perfectly good airplane presented limited career options. Without his hitch in the Army, though, he would not have met and married his wife Lynne in 1960. He worked in sales for Arrow Hart/Cooper Industries for almost 30 years in Greensboro, Detroit and Hartford. Afterwards, and he was a Connecticut Air National Guard civilian administrator in Windsor Locks for over a decade.
Jerry could be found tending to the grill at the family cottage on Fishers Island, NY, and also to his vintage cars and Vespa scooter. He was a platform tennis aficionado and a collector of military memorabilia, and a member of the Old Guard, the 1892 Club, and the Greater Hartford Bow Tie Swap Club. A loyal correspondent, he embraced the roles of raconteur and photographer at any social gathering, and valued immensely his long-term friendships with college, West Hartford, and Fishers Island friends.
He was predeceased in 2008 by Lynne, his beloved wife of 47 years, and is survived by his daughter Audrey Shank, son-in-law Greg Shank, granddaughter Sarah Shank and grandson-in-law Dillon Keys, of Oregon, as well as by his son Daniel Fisher-Owens, daughter-in-law Susan Fisher-Owens and granddaughter Grace Fisher-Owens of San Francisco. In lieu of flowers, the family requests memorial gifts be directed to Washington and Lee University, Trinity-Pawling School or the American Cancer Society.
