John Moore Fisher, 82, a resident of the Bearhunter Mountian Estates, Elkins, departed this life early Saturday morning, Aug. 3, 2002, at his home. He had bee in declining health, however death was unexpected and was attributed to cancer.
He was born Jan. 19, 1920, at Montrose, a son of the late William Daniel Fisher and Bessie Edna Moore Fisher.
On July 22, 1940, at Grantsville, Md., he was married to the former Mary Louise Kelley, who survives. They had just celebrated their 62nd wedding anniversary.
Surviving are two sons, Alan L. Fisher, Elkins, and William K. Fisher, Montrose; three daughters, Judith A. Sharp and husband, Louis Tryon, N.C., Cynthia L. Scott, Saluda, N.C., and Terri L. Hunsicker and husband, Gerald, Pisgah Forest, N.C.; 10 grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.
Mr. Fisher attended the one-room school at Montrose for eight years. He graduated form Elkins High School with the class of 1936. He attended Davis & Elkins College and received a bachelor’s degree in physics and mathematics in 1940. He returned to college after establishing his career and earned a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering in 1950. In 1990, he received an honorary doctorate from his Alma Mater. He began his professional career with DuPont Co. at Belle. His first assignment was with the construction division. A year later, he transferred to the Chambers Works, N.J., as an assistant engineer. In 1945, he moved to the Oklahoma Ordnance Works, and seven months later he joined the U.S. Army.
During 1946, he rejoined engineering at Parkersburg, as engineering office superintendent. He had his first Wilmington Del. assignment in 1948. He was loaned to the Defense Production Administration as an advisor on production planning for Atomic Energy Commission projects in 1952. In 1953, moved to the Louviers Building in Wilmington, Del., with the design division. He was promoted to senior process engineer in 1968.
He was named project manager in 1971 and resident design manager in the International department at Sao Paulo, Brazil in 1974. In 1976, he was transferred back to design and was named specialist manager- computer-aided-design in 1980. In December 1986, he retired from the DuPont Co. He remained a registered professional engineer in three states, Delaware, Pennsylvania and West Virginia.
After retirement, he joined the International Executive Service Corps and was immediately assigned to San Paulo, Brazil, for four assignments. Later assignments for the IESC included travel to Costa Rica and Egypt.
He was a member of the Davis Memorial Presbyterian Church where he was an Elder, had served on the president’s advisory board at Davis & Elkins College and on the board of directors of the Appalachian Community Health Care. He was a member of the H.W. Daniel’s Post 29, American Legion, the American Association of Retired Persons, the Elkins Lions Club, where he had previously served as past president of the Brandywine Chapter of Pennsylvania, Elkins Lodge 1135, BPOE, where he had served as past exalted ruler and served as DDGER for the central district and was a member of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers. He was an avid genealogist, having been consumed with family history during his later years. In relationship to his hobby, he was a member of the Hacker’s Creek Pioneer Descendants, the Allegheny Regional Family History Society, the Belington Public Library, the Harrison County Genealogy Society and the Randolph and Upshur County historical societies.
Cremation services will be provided by Lohr & Barb Funeral Home. Graveside services will be at 11 a.m. Saturday at Elkins Memorial Gardens at Elkins. The Rev. Jonas Johnson Jr. and Sister Teresa Reddington will officiate and interment of the cremains will follow with members of the H.W. Daniel’s Post 29, American Legion, presenting the American Flag. The family suggests that expressions of sympathy be in the form of contributions to the Allegheny Regional Family History Society, Beverly, W.Va., the Belington Public Libarry, W.Va., or to the National Foundation for Cancer Research or the American Cancer Society, Randolph County Unit, in care of Polly O’Kernick, 106 Wilson Lane, Elkins, W.Va. 26241.
