Posted on 03/03/2005 11:02:59 AM PST by TheOtherOne
Max Fisher, Republican Benefactor, Dies at 96
Published: Mar 3, 2005 DETROIT (AP) - Max Fisher, who made millions of dollars in oil and real estate and poured them back into Jewish philanthropy and the city of Detroit and was sought out for advice by Republican presidents, died Thursday. He was 96.
Fisher died at his home in Franklin, said David Techner, funeral director at the Ira Kaufman Chapel.
Fisher's fortune was estimated at $775 million in Forbes magazine's annual ranking of the nation's 400 wealthiest individuals in 2004. He was the oldest person on the list.
Fisher was born July 15, 1908, in Pittsburgh to immigrant Russian parents. He grew up in Salem, Ohio, and attended Ohio State University on a football scholarship. He moved to Detroit in 1933 to join his father's oil reclamation business as a $15-a-week salesman, then formed his own gasoline company with two other men in 1933.
Fisher's Aurora Gasoline became one of the largest independent oil companies in the Midwest, with nearly 700 Speedway gas stations. He served as chairman until 1959, when Marathon Oil Co. bought out Aurora, allowing Fisher to devote his time, energy and money to a spectrum of causes.
Fisher retired from business in 1963 to devote most of his time to fund-raising and philanthropy. As head of the United Jewish Appeal, he orchestrated an international campaign for Israel after the 1967 Arab-Israeli war.
Fisher was a major benefactor of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, gave $20 million to Ohio State's College of Business, and helped found Detroit Renaissance, a non-profit business roundtable aimed at improving conditions in the city and region.
Republican presidents starting with Dwight Eisenhower sought Fisher's advice on Middle Eastern affairs and Jewish issues. According to "Quiet Diplomat: A Biography of Max M. Fisher," by Peter Golden, President Ford and his secretary of state, Henry Kissinger, asked Fisher in 1975 to help heal a diplomatic rift between the United States and Israel over relations with Egypt.
"My fundamental responsibility was as an American," the book quoted Fisher as saying. "Then as an American Jewish leader. And finally, I had my love for Israel."
Fisher headed Jewish-American organizations including the United Jewish Appeal, the Council of Jewish Federations and the American Jewish Committee.
He founded the National Jewish Coalition, an organization of Jewish Republicans, and was one of the top donors to the Foundation for Florida's Future, created in 1995 by Florida Gov. Jeb Bush to promote conservative ideas.
He served as an adviser or board member of more than a dozen corporations, including Comerica Inc. and Sotheby's, the London auction house once chaired by his friend Alfred Taubman.
AP-ES-03-03-05 1343EST
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... and turned it from a dumpy joke into the 19th-ranked business school in the country. Resquiat in pacem.
I'm late to this, but I want to add that I had the privelege of having Mr. Fisher as the commencement speaker when I received my M.A. from Wayne State in 2001. He was a true gentleman whose love for Detroit and its community was obviously boundless, no matter how much he may have differed from its political majority. RIP Max, we'll miss you and your humanity
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