James Herschel Fisher Jr.: Flutist, teacher to deaf students
Sunday, August 19, 2007
By JENNI BEAUCHAMP / The Dallas Morning News
Music and silence had equal parts in the life of James Herschel
Fisher Jr., who played flute for the Mesquite Symphony Orchestra and
taught deaf students in Dallas for nearly two decades.
“He was just a genuinely good, kind person, and he really did what
the Lord wants us to do on this earth,” said his sister, Jeffie Jean
Bizzarri of Gun Barrel City. “He loved his neighbor as himself, and
he put other people before him.”
Mr. Fisher, 64, died Thursday at his home in Lancaster after a
three-year battle with lung cancer. Services will be conducted at 1
p.m. Saturday at Ferris Baptist Fellowship in Ferris.
Mr. Fisher was born and raised in Dallas and graduated from Adamson
High School in Oak Cliff in 1961.
He went on to earn a bachelor’s degree from North Texas State
University, now the University of North Texas, in 1966. Three years
later, he received his master’s degree in education from the
University of Texas at Austin.
After a six-year stint in the Air National Guard, from which he was
honorably discharged, Mr. Fisher returned to school to earn a
master’s degree in hearing-impaired education from Gallaudet
University in Washington, D.C.
In 1979, he began his teaching career in Big Spring, Texas, where he
taught for four years at the South West Collegiate Institute for the
Deaf, his sister said.
“He started teaching there the year the school opened,” Ms. Bizzarri
said.
Mr. Fisher’s interest in teaching sign language was motivated by his
family.
“We have an aunt that was deaf from polio. She was definitely his
inspiration,” Ms. Bizzarri said. “She was a survivor and passed away
a month ago. They were very close.”
Mr. Fisher returned to the Dallas area and taught high school
students in the Dallas school district for nearly 20 years until
illness forced him to retire in 2004.
He also taught sign language to the parents of deaf children at the
Callier Advanced Hearing Research Center, part of the University of
Texas at Dallas.
But teaching wasn’t Mr. Fisher’s only passion.
“Jimmy had two real gifts. One was teaching, and one was music,” Ms.
Bizzarri said. “He was like a child prodigy growing up with
instruments. He loved the flute the best.”
Mr. Fisher played first-chair flute with the Mesquite Symphony
Orchestra for 14 years before retiring last year.
“His passion for music was amazing,” said his niece, Amber Beayrd.
“Every time I would come over and hear him play, it would send chills
up my spine. He was just amazing.”
Mr. Fisher had no children, his sister said, but his students were
the next best thing for him.
“His teaching was truly sacrificial. … If he was married and had a
family, he never could have done it,” Ms. Bizzarri said.
In addition to his sister and niece, Mr. Fisher is survived by a
brother, Hunter Lee Fisher of Gun Barrel City, and lifelong friend
Jerry Hartsell of Lancaster.
Memorial contributions may be made to the American Cancer Society,
Mesquite Symphony Orchestra or the Callier Advanced Hearing Research
Center at UTD.
Link (May required free registration):
http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/obituaries/stories/DN-fisherob_19met.ART.East.Edition1.4232404.html
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