Andrew 'Bud' Fisher (1931-2020)

War historian collected stories of other veterans.

By Alexandra Mester / The Blade
Mon, 10 Aug 2020 04:00:00 GMT

Andrew “Bud” Fisher, the former co-owner of air-conditioning equipment distributor Bennington Associates who turned war historian and author who interviewed hundreds of area veterans to collect their stories, died Aug. 2 at Kingston Residence of Sylvania. He was 89.

His daughter, Jane Macino, said he died of protein-calorie malnutrition, though no specific underlying condition had been diagnosed.

“He was on hospice for failure to thrive,” she said. “He just couldn’t eat any more.”

Mr. Fisher was born Jan. 26, 1931, in Detroit to Robert and Hattie Fisher. He married his high school sweetheart, the former Nancy Killian, in 1951 and was drafted into the U.S. Army shortly after. He was stationed at Salzburg, Austria, for 14 months during the Korean War.

“He did not do any kind of combat; he had office work,” Mrs. Macino said. “That’s where he always felt like he should give back more. He didn’t feel like he was as brave as many other people were.”

When the University of Toledo partnered with the Library of Congress for the Veterans History Project in 2002, Mr. Fisher volunteered to interview area veterans about their service. He went on to become one of the most prolific interviewers, talking to more than 800 veterans.

George Pugh, who partnered with Mr. Fisher in 2012 to begin videotaping the interviews, said he was always respectful of the veterans’ wishes, often asking them afterward if they wanted to include a message to their families. The veterans all received their own copies of the interviews as well.

“He was a real gentleman,” Mr. Pugh said. “We got to be very close.”

Mr. Pugh had known Mr. Fisher for many years professionally through the air-conditioning industry before joining him in the Veterans History Project. They recorded 110 interviews together before Mr. Fisher stopped about a year or a year and a half ago. Many of the veterans had never told those stories to their families, Mr. Pugh said.

“Being able to relay those stories to the family, that was what was most important,” he said.

In 2005, Mr. Fisher won the local Jefferson Award for Public Service, and was nominated again in 2013. He was also twice recognized by the Library of Congress and, in 2010, by the Daughters of the American Revolution.

Mr. Fisher compiled 80 interviews with World War II veterans into a book published in 2009 by the University of Toledo Press.

“The once young men and women who served their country in WWII are now in their eighties and leaving us at an alarming rate,” Mr. Fisher wrote in the introduction of What A Time It Was. “Their stories are too important to be lost to history, although, sadly, many will be.”

Mr. Fisher went on to write a similar collection of 50 Korean War veterans’ stories in 30 Below on Christmas Eve, as well as a chronicle of European war history from 1789 to 1989 called The 200 Year War. He penned a number of other books, including a genealogy of the Fisher family in America as well as a book about his travels to 35 countries, and four other volumes of varying topics.

There may be another book published posthumously as Mrs. Macino said she delivered another manuscript on her father’s behalf to the University Press in July.

Mrs. Macino said her father had been a terrible student in high school, but had held onto an essay he wrote personifying a penny that a teacher had “raved” about.

“I think [writing] was always in him,” she said. “He always thought that maybe there would be promise there. When we were growing up, he always had books on WWII. He was always reading.”

She said going to college at the age of 70 through UT’s former Program 60 offering free tuition for seniors triggered his interest in writing. Despite his rocky high-school performance, he graduated summa cum laude with a bachelor’s degree in 2002 and went on to earn a master’s in 2013.

Mr. Fisher taught his daughter that “it’s never too late.”

“He started all this at 70,” she said. “He spent all those years working, and when he retired, he wasn’t going to just sit around or go golfing.”

When he returned home from Austria, he began a career in air-conditioning equipment sales. The family moved to Sylvania when he got a job with now-closed Bennington Associates as a sales manager. He later became the company’s president and then a co-owner before selling it and retiring in 1995.

Mr. Fisher’s many community endeavors included being a guest lecturer at Lourdes University Life Long Learning Program; past president and charter member of St. Stephen Lutheran Church in Sylvania; past president and 50-year member of Highland Meadows Golf Club in Sylvania, honored with a lifetime membership in 2019; past chairman of the City of Toledo air conditioning control board; past board member of the Toledo Heating and Air Conditioning Contractors Association of Ohio; charter member of the United States Forces in Austria Veterans Association; a member of the 11th Battalion Association and the Sylvania Elks; and a volunteer with Mobile Meals.

Survivors include sons Robert Fisher and Thomas Fisher, daughter Jane Macino, four grandchildren, and many nieces, nephews, and cousins.

Mr. Fisher wished to be cremated and to have no visitation or memorial service. The family suggests tributes to ProMedica Hospice.

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