High school and college professor, proud U.S. Navy veteran, beloved father

Claremont resident for 57 years Edmund Warner “Ted” Fisher, Jr., died suddenly on December 26 at home while watching “Bonanza” in his recliner. He was 88.

He was born in Brooklyn, New York, on December 1, 1934, the son of Edmund and Regina Fisher. Ted graduated from Harvard in 1956 and then Harvard Graduate School in 1962, where he earned his doctorate degree in divinity. He was ordained in the United Church of Christ in 1963. And in 1975, he earned his Ph.D. in religion from the Claremont Graduate School (now Claremont Graduate University).

Mr. Fisher and his wife, Elaine Floyd Fisher (deceased in 2016), moved to Claremont in 1965. From 1969 to 1973, he was headmaster of Girl’s Collegiate School in Claremont. He went on to teach American history at Arcadia High School and Pasadena City College, along with early church history, classical Greek, and Latin at the Claremont School of Theology, where he taught into his eighties.

Mr. Fisher was proud to have served as an officer in the U.S. Navy from 1956 to 1959. For many years in his retirement he held the position of commander of the Claremont American Legion — Keith Powell, Post 78, giving Fourth of July speeches at Memorial Park and honoring veterans at Oak Park Cemetery and Riverside National Cemetery.

Mr. Fisher was very proud that he had a family member who fought in the American Revolution, and, as a consequence, the men in his family were members of the historical society, The Sons of the Revolution. He relished being a member of the Roger Williams Family Association and a 10^th generation descendent of Roger Williams, the founder of Rhode Island. He was also related to Clara Harris, a friend of Mrs. Lincoln’s who was in the box when President Lincoln was assassinated. Another ancestor was New York Governor Ira Harris. American history was in his bones.

“Ted was truly a good man who lived a life with great faith,” his family shared. “He was smart, sarcastic, funny, blunt, extremely well-read, always a student, fluent in classical Greek and Latin, a professor, a minister, a kind husband, and a wonderful father.”

He is survived by his daughter Evangeline Fisher Grossman, son-in-law Marc Grossman, and grandsons Sam, Harry, and Joey Grossman.

Funeral services were held on January 11. He was laid to rest at Oak Park Cemetery in Claremont.