Obituary of Joseph Anthony Fisher

Joseph Anthony Fisher died peacefully at his home in Newton, Iowa on March 25th, 2024. He was born in San Juan, Puerto Rico, the first of Joseph George Fisher’s and Maria Teresa Amador’s eight children.  After moving to New York, he and his seven siblings traveled cross country as his father began the FAA establishment of airplane communication stations. 

He attended elementary school in Cheyenne, Wyoming, Little Rock, Arkansas and San Antonio, Texas.  There he attended the Christian Brothers pre-seminary and high school from which he never graduated.  After three years at the Benedictine Seminary in Canon City, Colorado, he was sent to Benedictine College, Atchison, Kansas where he graduated with a BA in literature and Spanish. He then was sent to St John’s College in Collegeville, Minnesota for further studies in philosophy and theology.  Two weeks before leaving for Rome, for additional studies, he left the seminary.  Returning to Fort Worth, Texas, where his family now lived, he worked as a shoe salesman while getting his Masters in English Literature from Texas Christian University.

In June 1952, he met Catherine, (Kay), Hurley on a blind date arranged by mutual friends. Together they all enjoyed Kay’s fried chicken and Joe and Kay enjoyed discussing Shakespeare’s sonnets.  Two years later they married on May 29th, 1954. 

Joe’s teaching career began in Dickinson, Texas where he taught Latin, Spanish, literature and even wrote a Christmas play for the students.  Returning to Ft. Worth, for family considerations, he first taught in junior high and later as an assistant professor at Texas Christian University in the Adult Reading and Study Skills department.  In 1959, for his Ph.D., he and his family moved to Iowa City and like other married students lived in the infamous renovated WWII military housing. As an instructor at the university’s Study Skill Center, he counseled and supervised students with academic concerns.

 In 1961, after earning his Doctorate in Educational Psychology and statistics, he accepted a position in Des Moines, Iowa at Drake University as the Director of the Adult Reading and Study Skills Center and Professor of graduate students in Educational Psychology.

In his professional career, he was president of the International Association of Adult Reading Specialists. He led members of this group on month-long educational tours in Europe and South America. He published articles in several professional journals. His self-published College Skills text was used by many students and college instructors.  From his analysis of literacy testing in South American Countries, the UN named him as consultant to Educational Secretaries in South America.

The ACT College Testing Program and certain units of the United States Military educational units recognized and adopted his philosophical insight of the strong correlation between test questions and responses. 

He and his family came to love Iowa with its, natural beauty and people’s strong Faith in God that influenced major moral decisions. For new challenges, however, upon his 1991 retirement, Joe and Kay moved to Albuquerque, New Mexico.  Here he studied Native American Arts and wrote and studied icons.  At his Catholic parish, St Bernadette, he taught courses in Scripture and the Catechism of the Catholic Church.

To be nearer to family, he and Kay moved to Newton, Iowa in 2021.  Here he taught classes at Sacred Heart Catholic Church and published the Dictionary for the Catechism of the Catholic Church (2016). All proceeds were donated to Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe in La Crosse, WI, and Franciscans of the Immaculate in New Bedford, MA. He became a Marian Catechist at the Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe in La Cross, WI.

With all his many professional accomplishments, awards and acclaims, he always said his greatest reward was the deep love, happy and sad memories, and strong Faith in God that he shared with his wife and children.  They loved camping in the US and Canada and delighted in recalling their humorous, unexpected experiences and adventures of three months of tent camping from The Netherlands to Yugoslavia (only two nights spent in a hotel).

Joe will also fondly and lovingly be remembered for his great sense of humor and puns.  His family and others enjoyed many intense discussions on Faith and the meaning of Truth, His kind but persistent method of questioning led many to a better understanding of others, the culture and, especially, their own personal beliefs. 

His is a legacy of great but simple love, for his faith and trust in God, his everlasting love of family, friends and God’s beautiful gift of life.

Those left to honor Joseph’s memory are his wife, Kay Fisher; his three sons, Andrew (Christa) Fisher, Gary Fisher, and John (Deirdre) Fisher; daughters, Cathy Brandt, and Colleen (TY) Chan; a sister, Lilly Quigley; two brothers, Paul (Judy) Fisher and John (Jan) Fisher; twelve grandchildren, and five great-grandchildren.

He was preceded in death by his parents, Joseph and Marie Fisher; two sons, Gregory Fisher, and Sean Fisher; two daughters, Rebecca Fisher, and Anna Marie Fisher; and four siblings.

A funeral Mass to celebrate Joseph's life will be held at Sacred Heart Catholic Church in Newton, Iowa at 11:00 a.m. on Tuesday, April 2nd. A live stream of the funeral Mass will be held on the Pence-Reese Funeral Home Facebook page. There will be a Rosary Service held at 9:45 a.m. at the church on the day of the funeral Mass. A visitation will be held at Pence-Reese Funeral Home on Monday, April 1^st, from 5:00 p.m. until 7:00 p.m. Interment will be at Sacred Heart Cemetery in Newton, Iowa. In lieu of flowers, the family request that donations be made in Joseph’s name to Sacred Heart Religious Education or the Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe in La Crosse, WI.