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02/17/2016 07:30 AMChuck Fischer, or “Coach” as many people know him, has a lot of life on which to reflect.
He moved to the area from Maine in 1953 after graduating from Bates College to continue his education at Yale, UConn, and Wesleyan University. Yale gave him a co-fellowship in American studies and at Wesleyan he earned a sixth year degree with honors, he says. He taught at Daniel Hand High School for 36 years, and to this day continues to teach through other avenues.
“I was the first guy to teach a whole year of Asian studies,” he says. “I took courses five summers in a row before I felt confident to do it, which is probably unique nowadays. We used a college textbook and I had outside speakers come in, and it was a very rewarding course. I also taught Western Civ(ilization) for the advanced placement through the University of Connecticut.
“I used to love to teach,” he comments. “I’d say it was like doing five live TV shows every day without a teleprompter. I still go around and give talks on historical facts, specifically [for the] Lions Club, Rotary Club, Kiwanis, Shriners, Daughters of the American Revolution, Civil War round tables. I’ve done an awful lot with the Shoreline Institute of Lifelong Learning. I think I’ve spoken to their groups 30 times. I get quite a few people that come back, and it’s pretty rewarding. I’ve been to the Shoreline Men Over Sixty group six times, and I’ve spoken to church groups, women’s groups, men’s groups, and it’s fun.”
Chuck is also planning to give some public talks at the Winter Club in the coming months.
He says, “There are going to be four talks, two in the spring, and two in the fall. The topic’s going to be ‘America Goes to War.’ I’m not going to spend time on the battles so much as the social and economic aspects of it, the preludes to it, and the results of them. So hopefully we’ll get a crowd of people that might show up for those, and I think they’re going to be free, so probably the chances are better than not,” he adds with a chuckle.
Teaching isn’t known for its lavish pay, so Chuck says he had to work in his spare time.
“I did a lot of carpentry work, masonry work, building stone walls. Stone walls are sort of like doing hands-on jigsaw puzzles—spatial relations and all of that. At one time when I was teaching I did it virtually every day I wasn’t in school. That was very rewarding. I helped a fellow remodel a 1749 Cape Cod [house] a few years ago and did stone work outside, rebuilt the chimneys, rebuilt the stairway in the front, took all the asbestos siding off. I had to take it up to a special place up in Portland to have it dumped in a hole in Georgia somewhere. When I was a young guy, I worked in a shipyard up in Maine, I worked on the Connecticut Turnpike, helped them build every bridge from Guilford to Saybrook. When the turnpike was finished—listen to this—people concluded that once you got past Branford, this turnpike was the biggest white elephant that had ever been created because there was virtually no traffic on it. It’s hard to believe today.”
Chuck had dreams of returning to Maine when he retired, but, perhaps luckily for everyone in this area, he couldn’t.
“I had a house right on the beach in 1976. There was a big storm, there had been massive beach erosion, and I lost the whole place. So that was the end of that dream. The place I lived, Phippsburg, Maine, was at the mouth of the Kennebeck River and there was virtually no one around. The village I lived in had 47 people. That was before the Oliver girls moved out. Then it dropped to 45. They both married lighthouse keepers.
“When I was a young guy, I used to just sit on the rocks and watch the surf a lot. My mother used to say, [adopts prim voice] ‘Charles, why are you spending your time sitting on those rocks out there looking at the water?’ I said, ‘You know, if I have to explain it, you’ll never understand it.’”
Chuck served in the Navy Reserves.
“I joined when I was in college,” he says. “It was only later I found out my mother had a first cousin on the Titanic. She had another first cousin on the Lusitania. My father had an uncle on the battleship Maine. I’ve often wondered why my father suggested I join the Navy,” he adds with a chuckle.
Here in Madison, Chuck earned the nickname “Coach” because, as he says, “At one time or another I coached everything from Little League up to post-high school.”
Along the way, Chuck married and had three children, Alida, Jon, and Mike.
He says, “Alida is a social worker in Boulder, Colorado. My middle guy, Jon, is a graduate of Gettysburg College and he just retired from an investment company in New York City that he was part owner of, Stone Harbor. He lives in a condo on South Beach in Miami. My youngest, Mike, lives in town with his wife, who works for the VNA. Mike is a bigshot with Indeco Tool Company in Bari, Italy, which has distributors all over the country, so every other week he’s on the road to somewhere. Both his girls, Carly and Alexandra, are quite active in sports. Carly goes to Cheshire Academy and Alexandra goes to Hand. The kids are all very successful and I’m very proud of them.”
Chuck has been in a relationship for more than four years with retired English teacher Rosa Matesky, whom he met after joining the Winter Club a few years ago.
“Her being a retired English teacher and me being a retired history teacher, we had a lot to talk about. It’s been very nice for both of us. She’s a charming lady.”
Chuck is an avid gardener, and says he has a garden at Bauer Park on Copse Road.
“I have a big garden and I give my family here and my neighbors vegetables,” he says. “I mentioned this to Rosa and she said she wanted to help me with it, so she’s now a gardener. She cooks, and she can cook. My theory is ‘I grow it and you cook it.’ I know people think I’m crazy. I go up to the garden and take my little junky portable radio and I turn on an FM station that comes out of Guilford, WMNR. All they do is play classical music. I sit there and weed and listen to classical music. It’s a form of therapy and it’s wonderful. I also play golf. I shot better than my age six times last year, low 80s. The thing is, I’m 85 years old and except for a couple of bum knees, I still feel like I’m in my 20s.”
For information about Chuck Fischer’s upcoming talks, visit the Madison Winter Club website www.madisonwinterclub.org.
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