By Jonathan Mitchell
Author, poet and beloved Peninsula College English professor, James R. Fisher died of cancer on Sunday Nov. 2 with his wife, Ann, at his side. He was 72.
“I think it’s his generosity and his sense of humor that resonate with me,” Professor Kate Reavey said.
“I think of him as the man we love to love,” Professor Janet Lucas added. “He was the most relaxed, mellow, funny person you could ever meet.”
Earlier in life Fisher worked for Proctor and Gamble where he put his BA in math and English from Long Beach State College to good use in the field of computerized accounting. In 1994, after going back to school to get his Ph.D. in English Literature from the University of Southern California, Fisher began teaching at PC, a position he held for two decades before retiring in Dec. 2013 due to his failing health.
According to the PC website, Fisher is credited with inventing the “sonnette,” a condensed version of the Shakespearian 14-line sonnet. His published works include “Genesis of Love” and “Happy Valley, USA” as well as various collections of poetry including “Around the World On A Metaphor” which includes the poem “Coming Home,” a meditation on the end of life. Shortly before his death he completed a manuscript, “The Big Casino,” detailing his own approaching mortality.
“He was a really great guy and well worth remembering,” said friend Ed Chadd who shared a cramped office with Fisher and colleagues that they called the “adjunct faculty ghetto.” Chadd remembered that he would be sitting grading papers and Fisher would pop his head in and read his most recent poem. “He could just make your day. He would pop in there like a little dancing elf and remind you of the enchantment of life…he just had such a delight in everything.”
In the final stanza of his poem “A Life” Fisher said: “God and Nature/always one,/all of man’s plans come undone,/but poems and trees/go on and on.” In addition to his poems living on forever, an asteroid named after Fisher by high school friend, Astronomer Al Grauer, continues the travels that Fisher and his wife enjoyed during his life.
Fisher is survived by his wife Ann, his daughters Karen and Tracy and his granddaughter Megan, whom, in the introduction of his book “Genesis of Love” he described as “the women in my life.”
Collections that include Fisher’s poems are available in the library as well as some videos of Fisher reading his poems along with friends. A private celebration of his life is planned for Nov. 22.
“Happiness”
by Jim Fisher
“Real happiness is found along the way,
Not at the end of the road.”