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Alumni Notes
 Albert
Fisher '38, an avid swimmer with 400-plus medals from state,
national, and international competitions, is at it again.
At age 86, he took home eight gold medals last June from the
Missouri State Senior Games. The year 2001 was just as kind:
Fisher earned five medals at the U.S. Masters Swimming Long
Course Championships and six silver and one bronze medal at
the 2001 Huntsman World Senior Games. Not too shabby, considering
that he renewed his national competitive career at age 70.
"One thing about swimming--you never really forget the
techniques," says Fisher, who takes to the water five days
a week. He began swimming at Ohio's Lakewood High School and
continued at Oberlin, where he swam the 50- and 100-meter backstroke
and the 50-meter backstroke relays.
Although he captained Oberlin's team his senior year, Fisher
nearly gave up the sport after graduation. He earned an MBA
and PhD from Ohio State University and entered the pharmaceutical
field, retiring in 1986 as president of the American Foundation
for Pharmaceutical Education. "For more than 40 years,
my swims were only a few times a year --hardly enough to keep
in shape," he says. Then, in the early 1980s, persuaded
by a friend who had discovered a "good swimming pool nearby,"
Fisher resumed his hobby. After a few years of regular workouts
at the Springfield, Mo., YMCA, he joined the New Jersey Masters.
He has competed in more than 120 swimming meets in 32 states.
Fisher's comeback after 45 years was the subject of a local Fox
News broadcast, and articles have appeared in the Columbia
Missourian, The Vintage Voice, and Utah Spirit.
--Courtney Mauk '03
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