Colin G. Fisher
1920 - 2001
Colin G. Fisher and his wife, Eleanor Ruth, taught in the music department at Southwestern Junior College, now Southwestern Adventist University, from 1945 to 1952. An accomplished violinist, he taught violin, conducted the orchestra and band, and chaired the department. She was a talented pianist and organist who taught keyboard lessons and voice and directed the choir.
Colin was born in Canada, the youngest of three children of Edison A. S. and Charlotte G. Fisher. His family moved to Boston, Massachusetts, when he was seven.
He married Eleanor Ruth Mitchell, the daughter of a Seventh-day Adventist minister, in July 1942 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and then they attended Washington Missionary College until 1944, when they graduated with degrees in music, he with a B.Mus. and she with a B.A. They worked in evangelism in Pennsylvania for a year before going to SJC.
J. D. Bledsoe, Adventist music educator who was at SWJC while they were there, later recalled the impact they had on his life and the ongoing relationship they had after he left:
I was very devoted to the Fishers. I sang in choir under her. She was a marvelous a cappella choir director. It was a very musical experience. They were a great inspiration to me when I was studying at Southwestern. She had a greater impact on my life than any other person I knew, with the exception of Harold A. Miller. After we parted, I kept in touch with them for many years.
After leaving SJA, the Fishers spent a year in Bloomington, Indiana, where they pursued graduate work at Indiana University. At the end of that year they went to Philippine Union College, where they worked briefly before returning to the States, somewhat disillusioned by that experience. In 1958 they entered the nursing home business in Los Gatos, California, working there for 29 years before retiring to southern Oregon in 1987. Bledsoe, who maintained contact with the Fishers for many years, observed
She related to me in one of our conversations how she and her son would go to the nursing home on Sabbaths to care for things that had to be done. Because of that, they were "unchurched." She once observed to me that "I didn't leave the church, the church left me." Even so, in their letters to me, they never indicated any bitterness.
The Fishers were residing in southern Oregon at the time of Colin's death at age 81.
ds/2012
Sources: Columbia Union Visitor, 9 July 1942, 6 (marriage); Southwestern Junior College Yearbooks, 1946 to 1952; Social Security Death Index; Ancestory .com; Obituary for Eleanor Ruth fisher, San Jose Mercury News, 7 June 2008; Interview and conversations with J.D. Bledsoe, October and November, 2007.