John Fischer, 99, educator during turbulent times
NEW YORK - John H. Fischer, whose cool, determined leadership as school superintendent made Baltimore the first large American city to integrate its segregated public schools following the Brown v. Board of Education ruling and who brought reform and innovation to Teachers College of Columbia University as its dean and president in the 1960s and 1970s, died Friday at his home in Westwood, Mass. He was 99.
The cause was congestive heart failure, said his son David Hackett Fischer.
A year after taking over as Baltimore’s school superintendent in 1953, Dr. Fischer, a former schoolteacher, faced the daunting prospect of grappling with the Supreme Court’s ruling, which said segregated schools could no longer be tolerated.
A month after the decision was handed down, he met with the city’s teachers and announced that Baltimore would integrate its schools. Those opposed to the policy, he said, could resign.
“We have had the last of placing children anywhere for racial reasons,’’ he said. “Of our own choice, we have enlisted to serve all our people and the cause of education. We are entitled, therefore, to share the quiet pride that only the volunteer may feel.’’
Facing down picket lines and boycotts by parents, Dr. Fischer presided over a largely peaceful transition to integration, in part because he had the strong backing of his school board and of Baltimore’s mayor, Thomas D’Alesandro Jr., the father of Nancy Pelosi, the current speaker of the House of Representatives.
In 1959, Dr. Fischer was named dean of Teachers College, where he was summoned to inject a sense of rigor and to toughen standards. Skeptical about the college’s philosophy, derived from John Dewey, of educating the “whole child,’’ he championed “intellectual competence’’ as the principal goal of education.
To restore value to the education degree, he helped bridge the gulf between Teachers College and Columbia’s academic departments. He also expanded the college’s training programs for administrators and teachers working in developing countries, and put new emphasis on serving neglected student populations.
John Henry Fischer was born in Baltimore on July 16, 1910. After graduating from Baltimore City College, a secondary school, he earned a teacher’s diploma from Maryland State Normal School (now Towson University) in 1930 and began teaching sixth grade at Montebello School in Baltimore.
As Dr. Fischer rose through the public school hierarchy, he continued his studies. After earning a bachelor’s degree from Johns Hopkins in 1940, he commuted to Teachers College at Columbia, earning a master’s degree in 1949 and a doctorate in school administration in 1951. His dissertation, “A Plan for Reviewing and Revising the Program for the Preparation of School Executives at Teachers College,’’ turned out to be an effective application for employment.
While at Johns Hopkins, he married Norma Frederick, his lab partner in a biology course. She died in 2002. In addition to his son David of Wayland, he leaves another son, Miles of Manhattan; five grandchildren; and six great-grandchildren.
Dr. Fischer was recognized as a skilled administrator when he took over as Baltimore’s superintendent of public instruction, but his low-key, unbending approach to desegregation elevated him to the status of an educational statesman in the eyes of educators and civil rights groups.
While conducting a soft campaign of public education and persuasion on the issue, he showed steely resolve when faced with boycotts, strikes, and protests. Any students kept at home by their parents, he warned, or engaging in strikes would be treated as truants.