Dr. George Westcott Fisher

Dr. George Wescott Fisher

May 16, 1937 – November 27, 2023

It is with deep sorrow that we announce the passing of Dr. George Westcott Fisher on November 27th, 2023. He departed peacefully with family by his side, leaving behind cherished memories and a legacy that will be remembered by all who knew him. He was 86.

George Fisher was born May 16, 1937, in New Haven, Connecticut, to parents Irving Norton Fisher, Jr. and Virginia Hays Fisher. He grew up in Connecticut, and often spoke about teenage summer jobs working on a dude ranch out west, and digging up dinosaur bones as an assistant on a paleontological project. He earned a BA in Geology at Dartmouth College in 1959, where he joined a rock-climbing club, and scaled everything from campus buildings to snow-covered mountains in the Canadian Rockies. He earned his Ph.D. in Geology at Johns Hopkins University in 1963. He joined the faculty at Hopkins in 1967 after a two-year stint in the U.S. Army Signal Corps (from 1st Lieutenant to Captain) and a two-year postdoctoral fellowship at the Geophysical Laboratory, Carnegie Institution of Washington. At Hopkins, he served as Chair of the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences from 1978 to 1983, Dean of the School of Arts and Sciences from 1983 to 1987, and Director of the Institute for Global Studies in Culture, Power, and History from 2002 to 2005. He retired as an Emeritus Professor of Geology in 2005. Until 2014, he continued to teach classes on science, ecology, and religious thought at the Ecumenical Institute of Theology, St. Mary’s Seminary and University. He was an award-winning teacher, and his academic work and service contributions were celebrated by many honors and awards, including being elected fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Sciences.

Dr. Fisher’s passion for research and teaching reflected and sustained his life-long love of the outdoors, and of the Appalachian Mountains and the Chesapeake Bay in particular. His early research was devoted to studying the geology of the Appalachian Mountain system, producing what is viewed as the definitive summary of southern and central Appalachian geology. He later applied methods of physical chemistry to explore the kinetics of metamorphic processes. In the 1990s, he turned his attention to the importance of the Earth sciences for understanding human sustainability. The question of sustainability led him to explore connections between the Earth sciences and religious thought. As part of this effort, he earned a graduate degree in Theology in 2002 through the Ecumenical Institute of St. Mary’s Seminary and University, and became a leader in national efforts to create dialogues between science and religion.

Dr. Fisher is survived by his beloved wife of 36 years, the Rev. Gretchen van Utt, and his three daughters from a previous marriage, Kate McKelvie (Scott), Lynn Fisher, and Cindy Fisher. His daughters treasure memories of family camping and backpacking trips in the Appalachians and the Rocky Mountains. George never stopped traveling, hiking, and exploring, both in his beloved Appalachians and farther afield. At a family gathering at Shenandoah National Park to celebrate his 80th birthday, he reminisced about many years of bringing students and colleagues there for geology field trips. George and Gretchen also shared a love of sports, and especially Orioles baseball. He enthusiastically engaged in many hobbies during his long life, including long-distance bicycle riding, sailing with Gretchen, photography, carpentry, and painting.

Dr. Fisher was a lifelong intellectual, happiest with his nose in a book or discussing what he read with students, colleagues, or family. He spent his entire adult life in Baltimore, knew every corner of the city, and cared deeply about its community and landscape. He was an elder in the Presbyterian Church (USA) with roots in both Brown Memorial Park Avenue Presbyterian Church and, most recently, Knox Presbyterian Church, where he was an active member for over a decade prior to his death. He will be sorely missed by family, colleagues, and many throughout the community.

A graveside service of remembrance, thanksgiving and committal will be held on Friday, December 15th, 2023, at 2:00 pm at Serenity Ridge Natural Burial Cemetery, located at 2406 Ridge Road, Windsor Mill, Maryland 21244. On Saturday, December 16th at 1:00 pm, a memorial service will be held at Knox Presbyterian Church, 1300 N. Eden Street, Baltimore.

In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be offered to the Sierra Club.