Our dear friend, a founder of the Winter Park History Museum and our first Association Director, Eleanor Fisher, lived 99 incredible years and died on July 7, 2021.
After graduating cum laude from Florida State University in 1943, she packed up her Journalism degree and Phi Beta Kappa key and returned to central Florida as an Orlando Sentinel reporter.
She met her dashing husband, Col. Russell Fisher, during WWII and after a whirlwind 3-month romance, they married before he was shipped overseas. In 1970, after raising her 4 children on Air Force bases around the globe, the Fishers made Winter Park their permanent home.
With her children now grown, Eleanor set about making her community a better place. She dove into community activism.
A year after returning to central Florida she became the first Director of ADDitions, the school volunteer program which continues to have an extraordinary impact on Orange County classrooms. Eleanor began with 200 volunteers and today there are more than 56,000.
As a granddaughter of the Orlando pioneer Bumby family, a love of history was central to her life. She became a founding member and the first Director of the Winter Park Historical Association. Ever the leader, Eleanor fought for contributions and space to make the town’s first history museum a reality. In 1995 the museum opened at the old Atlantic Coast Railroad freight office in the Farmer’s Market. Our museum remains today in that space.
Eleanor always made her world a better place. She was a lifetime environmentalist and she and Russell were founding members of Friends of Wekiva River.
In 2008 Eleanor was honored at the Winter Park History Museum’s Peacock Ball for her leadership to preserve town history and as the driving force to obtain museum space to display this history.
Eleanor’s spirit will continue to live at the Winter Park History Museum.
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