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THOMAS J. FISHER: A Planner and a Doer

 

Carving the turkey. Slipping out for a round of golf. Taking his wife and three children to a Britney Spears concert. Not to mention working, as a vice president for operations at Fiduciary Trust Company International. How did Thomas J. Fisher, 36, get it all done?

"The Bible says God created our world in seven days," Mr. Fisher's brother-in-law, Chris O'Donnell, said in his eulogy. "I think Tom could have done it in six and still gotten 18 in along the way."

The Fisher family had the most meticulously mowed lawn in their Union, N.J., neighborhood, and Mr. Fisher insisted on painting the house himself. Twice. "He was on double ladders, hanging off a slate roof. I was panicking," said Susan Fisher, his wife. "But he wouldn't hire people to do things like that."

Mr. Fisher was a planner. "Get it on the calendar!" he would cry when friends proposed a tentative get-together. And on the calendar it got. "He exhausted me," said Mrs. Fisher, 38.

Now she is the one raking the lawn and shopping for groceries. "He left me with a three-month supply of paper towels," she said. "And big shoes to fill."

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From "Profiles in Grief" of The New York Times