New York native Dick Fischer began a successful career in law by earning a bachelor’s degree in English from Harvard College in 1959 and a law degree from Harvard Law School in 1963. Immediately upon graduation, Fischer served as a law clerk with the New York State Court of Appeals.

 

For the next 30 years of his professional life, he worked for the law firm of Nixon, Hargrave, Devans & Doyle in Rochester, New York. He was a member of the firm’s task force on governance that studied, proposed and implemented a new form of governance in 1991 and was a member of the first firm-wide policy committee from 1991 to 1995.

 

He retired from the 240-attorney, six-office, 120-year-old law firm as managing partner and main ethics partner to move to Stillwater. He’s been recognized in The Best Lawyers in America, Who’s Who in America, Who’s Who in American Law, Who’s Who in the World and The Nichols School (Buffalo, New York) Athletic Hall of Fame.

 

Fischer served on the OSU Friends of Music board, including time as president, and was an adjunct faculty member in OSU’s Spears School of Business, where he taught courses in personal finance and world trade.

 

Along with his wife, Malinda, Fischer was instrumental in establishing an endowment to create the Thomas E. Berry Professorship in Water Research and Management at OSU. The endowment helps ensure scientists and students can advance technology to help provide adequate food for people everywhere while protecting our most limited natural resource – water.