C. Miller Fisher: An Appreciation

Abstract

In an era when almost anyone of note is called a star, superstar, or legend, the death of Dr Fisher in April 2012 at 98 years was the loss of a true once-in-a-generation figure. A brief outline of the bulleted dates in the biography of Dr Fisher shows his birth in Waterloo, Ontario, in December 1913, receipt of medical degree from University of Toronto in 1938, service in the Canadian Navy with transfer on loan to the British Royal Navy, and 3.5-year internment in a German prisoner of war camp from 1940 to 1944, training in neurology and neuropathology at the Montreal Neurological Institute and Boston City Hospital to 1949, faculty position at Montreal General Hospital to 1954, and subsequent move to Massachusetts General Hospital under the leadership of Dr Raymond D. Adams. I have been unable to ascertain a date when Dr Fisher officially left Massachusetts General Hospital, an event many at this institution would say has not occurred. As chair of the International Stroke Conference Program Committee, I was exceedingly privileged to deliver In Memoriam remarks at the conference in February 2013 summarized in the current article. These represent personal reflections on a legendary investigator, healer, and teacher from a tremendously grateful pupil, who was no more than a blip on Dr Fisher’s extraordinarily rich radar screen. For more complete treatments (including a reprinting of Dr Louis Caplan’s 1982 accurate and …