{"id":1711,"date":"2017-12-05T19:38:18","date_gmt":"2017-12-06T00:38:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.goucher.edu\/magazine\/?p=1711"},"modified":"2025-07-26T14:44:52","modified_gmt":"2025-07-26T18:44:52","slug":"family-ties","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.goucher.edu\/magazine\/family-ties\/","title":{"rendered":"Family Ties"},"content":{"rendered":"

Don\u2019t touch the things in the brown bottles,\u201d Hilda Cohen Fisher \u201947<\/b><\/span> would tell her young daughter Lynn Toby Fisher \u201971<\/b><\/span>, when Lynn would visit the Goucher chemistry labs while in junior high school.<\/p>\n

The brown bottles held the acids, and since Lynn thought she wanted to go to medical school, during school breaks she was keen to accompany her mother to work overseeing the chemistry labs and exploring all of its fascinating contents.<\/p>\n

Once she became a Goucher student, Lynn\u2019s academic path changed. She decided to major in philosophy and comparative religion, after taking a philosophy course with Professor Mary Carmen Rose. \u201cShe was the most extraordinary human being,\u201d says Lynn. Ultimately, Lynn chose to pursue a law degree, even though she had never met a lawyer. She eventually became a mergers and acquisitions corporate partner in a large New York law firm where she worked for more than three decades before retiring two years ago.<\/p>\n

\u201cGoucher was a transformative time in my life. It was fabulous that it was an all-women\u2019s college,\u201d she says. \u201cThe classroom was a very open place to learn to think, speak, listen, and convince. Those skills were critical to what my career ultimately became.\u201d<\/p>\n

After losing touch with Goucher over the years, she reconnected during former president Sandy Ungar\u2019s term when her parents told her about all of the exciting things happening at the school. She decided she wanted to be a part of it and became a trustee in 2007; she currently serves as treasurer and chair of the Board\u2019s finance committee.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne of the most critical things to teach young people is to give back, so that someone else can have your experience,\u201d she says when discussing her family\u2019s support of Goucher. \u201cMy mom wouldn\u2019t have been able to go to Goucher without her scholarship and I wouldn\u2019t have been able to afford to attend without the tuition remission for staff and faculty.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lynn recalls her mother keenly understanding that she needed to be independent while at Goucher, even with her mother working on campus. During one campus encounter, Lynn hid her cigarette behind her coat while they spoke. As they parted, Lynn remembers her mother deftly saying, \u201cBe careful not to burn a whole in the back of your coat!\u201d<\/p>\n

Hilda Fisher managed the chemistry labs at Goucher for more than 25 years. In addition to Lynn, Hilda\u2019s other two daughters, Arlene Fisher Blaker \u201975 <\/b><\/span>and Marylin Hope Fisher \u201977<\/b><\/span>, attended Goucher, while her son attended Johns Hopkins University through the tuition exchange program.<\/p>\n

During World War II, Hilda felt that people believed women could do anything. She studied the sciences and built a strong relationship with her professors.<\/p>\n

As a young alumna, she remembers helping to transfer pieces of the delicate chemistry lab equipment from the old city campus to their new home in Hoffberger. \u201cWe had to be careful holding the scales; they were very delicate,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

When her children were all in primary school, the chair of the Chemistry Department offered her a part-time job in the chemistry labs. It was a dream job, intellectually stimulating, but flexible enough to allow time for being a mother of four children.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy favorite part of teaching was the organic chemistry labs,\u201d she says, along with the hands-on experiments and student presentations that brought the projects to life.<\/p>\n

While a faculty member, Hilda and her husband of 70 years, Alvin, were very involved with student life. The couple would give a midnight tour of Baltimore to the incoming first-year class. Taking a double-decker bus around the city, the Fishers guided students on a tour of City Hall and ships in the harbor. \u201cOur tour ended at Fort McHenry where the students would help to raise the flag at 6 a.m., just as the sun was rising,\u201d recalls Hilda.<\/p>\n

At her current home, which overlooks the Goucher campus, Hilda remembers all of the fun she had with her students, including the time they challenged Mills College in California to see which school could complete swim laps for the equivalent of a cross-country journey. \u201cGoucher won, of course.\u201d<\/p>\n

In addition to the impact Hilda made on her students, the Fisher family has been crucial in many other Goucher projects throughout the years. Their support extends to important science and technology initiatives, as well as the popular Alvin and Hilda Fisher \u201947 outdoor patio at Alice\u2019s and the Lynn Toby Fisher \u201971 and John Lee Compton grand staircase in the library.<\/p>\n

This fall, Lynn once again shared the campus with her mother. She hosted her mother\u2019s 90th birthday party at the Alumnae\/i House and celebrated Hilda and Alvin\u2019s 70th wedding anniversary and Alvin\u2019s 97th birthday. The Fisher family shared many old and new memories of Goucher together and, in honor of Hilda\u2019s 70th Goucher reunion this year, she and Alvin established a scholarship fund for first-generation students who want to major in the natural sciences.<\/p>\n

In her toast at the party, Lynn thanked Goucher \u201cfor taking mom out of the house and giving us room to grow up all while earning our way through Goucher and Hopkins\u2014educations that transformed our lives.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Fisher family has been crucial to many Goucher projects throughout the years.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":360,"featured_media":1712,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[55234],"tags":[],"ppma_author":[87483],"class_list":["post-1711","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-giving-to-goucher"],"yoast_head":"\nFamily Ties | Goucher Magazine<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.goucher.edu\/magazine\/family-ties\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" 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