Harrison Cleve Fisch

Harrison Cleve Fisch, 84, Sutherland, died Sunday, Nov. 2, 2008. Services were Wednesday, Nov. 5th, at United Methodist Church in Sutherland. Harrison was born on Sept. 23, 1924, at the home of his parents, Cleve and Irene (Webster) Fisch at the Fisch farm southeast of Gaza, Iowa. He attended Gaza Consolidated School through the 10th grade, transferring to Sutherland for the final two years in order to take courses required for college. He enrolled at Iowa State College in 1942, and spent the next seven years attending college intermittently, working on the farm part of the time and serving about 18 months in the army. Considered too near-sighted for combat service, he spent most of his army time as map technician at the Command and Staff College at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. On Dec. 26, 1948, he married Marjorie Jean Terrell in Des Moines. They had been married 59 years at the time of his death. Both Jean and Harrison graduated from Iowa State in the spring of 1949, after which Harrison accepted a teaching position at Michigan State University. He worked there for the next six years, receiving a master's degree in agricultural engineering in 1952. From late 1952 to 1955 Harrison worked for Michigan State in Colombia, South America, training Colombian college students in agricultural engineering. Harrison enjoyed teaching, but was unhappy with some of the other requirements of university employment, so in 1955 he decided to return to the home farm on a trial basis. He continued as a farmer for the rest of his life. Harrison continued his parents' tradition of local community activities, serving on local and county school boards, as well as Farm Bureau, and the Northwest Iowa Experiment Farm Association. In 1966, he was elected to the O'Brien County Board of Supervisors, where he served continuously until 1990. While a supervisor, he served 20 years as Board Chairman of the county-sponsored Northwest Iowa Mental Health Center. During that time, the Center was able to improve and expand its services to serve nine cooperating rural counties, and at one point received national recognition for delivery of easily accessible, quality mental health services in a rural area. After his 1990 retirement, Harrison served three years as a local VISTA worker and later as a helper for senior citizens with health insurance problems, and served several short terms as a soil conservation commissioner after being appointed to fill a vacancy. Physical problems curtailed Harrison's activities in later years, but when able, he continued to work on a hobby basis on projects around the family farms, preferring jobs that could be conducted from a machine operator's seat. Until old age planted a frog in his throat, Harrison sang most of his life with some group or another, usually singing tenor. Singing lead with the barbershop quartet The Sugar-Cured Four during college years was his favorite, and he fondly recalled his brief association with Des Moines' Highland Park Singers, whose old bassos could match the Russian Cossacks. He is survived by his wife, Jean of Sutherland; four children, Brian Fisch of Paullina, Jonathan Fisch of Primghar, Mary (Mrs. Thomas Greene) of Alexandria, Virginia, Martha (Mrs. David Buns) of Minneapolis, Minn., and two grandchildren and one great-grandson. He was preceded in death by parents Cleve and Irene Fisch.

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