William Frederick Fisher (born April 1, 1946) is an American

physician A physician (American English), medical practitioner (Commonwealth English), medical doctor, or simply doctor, is a health professional who practices medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring health through th ...

and a former

NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agency of the US federal government responsible for the civil space program, aeronautics research, and space research. NASA was established in 1958, succeeding t ...

astronaut An astronaut (from the Ancient Greek (), meaning 'star', and (), meaning 'sailor') is a person trained, equipped, and deployed by a human spaceflight program to serve as a commander or crew member aboard a spacecraft. Although generally r ...

. Fisher went into space in 1985 on board the Space Shuttle. He retired from NASA in 1992 and returned to the full-time practice of medicine. His time at NASA coincided with that of his former wife and fellow astronaut

Anna Lee Fisher Anna Lee Fisher (née Sims; born August 24, 1949) is an American chemist, emergency physician and a former NASA astronaut. Formerly married to fellow astronaut Bill Fisher, and the mother of two children, in 1984, she became the first mother to ...

. He is also the great grandson of Pony Express rider William Frederick Fisher (1839 - 1919)

Early life

Fisher was born April 1, 1946, in

Dallas, Texas Dallas () is the third largest city in Texas and the largest city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States at 7.5 million people. It is the largest city in and seat of Dallas County w ...

Education

* 1964: Graduated from North Syracuse Central High School,

North Syracuse, New York North Syracuse is a village in Onondaga County, New York, United States. The population was 6,800 at the 2010 census. North Syracuse is located in the towns of Cicero and Clay, north of the city of Syracuse. History The village was original ...

* 1968: Received a

Bachelor of Arts Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four years ...

degree in

Biological Sciences Biology is the scientific study of life. It is a natural science with a broad scope but has several unifying themes that tie it together as a single, coherent field. For instance, all organisms are made up of cells that process hereditary ...

from

Stanford University Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is consider ...

* 1969–1971: Performed graduate work in

Microbiology Microbiology () is the scientific study of microorganisms, those being unicellular (single cell), multicellular (cell colony), or acellular (lacking cells). Microbiology encompasses numerous sub-disciplines including virology, bacteriology, prot ...

at the

University of Florida The University of Florida (Florida or UF) is a public land-grant research university in Gainesville, Florida. It is a senior member of the State University System of Florida, traces its origins to 1853, and has operated continuously on its ...

* 1975: Received a

Doctor of Medicine Doctor of Medicine (abbreviated M.D., from the Latin language, Latin ''Medicinae Doctor'') is a medical degree, the meaning of which varies between different jurisdictions. In the United States, and some other countries, the M.D. denotes a profes ...

from the

* 1975–1977: Residency in

General Surgery General surgery is a surgical specialty that focuses on alimentary canal and abdominal contents including the esophagus, stomach, small intestine, large intestine, liver, pancreas, gallbladder, appendix and bile ducts, and often the thyroid ...

from

UCLA Medical Center Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center (also commonly referred to as ''UCLA Medical Center'', "RRMC" or "Ronald Reagan") is a hospital located on the campus of the University of California, Los Angeles, in Westwood, Los Angeles, California, United ...

* 1978–1980: Performed graduate work in

Engineering Engineering is the use of scientific method, scientific principles to design and build machines, structures, and other items, including bridges, tunnels, roads, vehicles, and buildings. The discipline of engineering encompasses a broad rang ...

at the

University of Houston The University of Houston (UH) is a Public university, public research university in Houston, Texas. Founded in 1927, UH is a member of the University of Houston System and the List of universities in Texas by enrollment, university in Texas ...

Career

Fisher graduated from

in 1968, and later served as a

mountaineering Mountaineering or alpinism, is a set of outdoor activities that involves ascending tall mountains. Mountaineering-related activities include traditional outdoor climbing, skiing, and traversing via ferratas. Indoor climbing, sport climbing, a ...

instructor in Leysin, Switzerland. He attended medical school at the

, graduating in 1975. After medical school, Fisher completed a surgical residency from 1975 to 1977 at

Harbor–UCLA Medical Center Harbor–UCLA Medical Center, is a 570-bed public teaching hospital located at 1000 West Carson Street in West Carson, an unincorporated area within Los Angeles County, California. As implied by the name, the hospital is owned by the Los Angeles ...

Torrance, California Torrance is a city in the Los Angeles metropolitan area located in Los Angeles County, California, Los Angeles County, California, United States. The city is part of what is known as the South Bay (Los Angeles County), South Bay region of the m ...

. He entered private practice in emergency medicine in 1977. He also attended graduate school at the

from 1978 to 1980. He was accepted as a NASA astronaut in 1980. He has logged over 2,000 hours in

prop A prop, formally known as (theatrical) property, is an object used on stage or screen by actors during a performance or screen production. In practical terms, a prop is considered to be anything movable or portable on a stage or a set, distinc ...

rotary-wing A rotorcraft or rotary-wing aircraft is a heavier-than-air aircraft with rotary wings or rotor blades, which generate lift by rotating around a vertical mast. Several rotor blades mounted on a single mast are referred to as a rotor. The Internati ...

jet aircraft A jet aircraft (or simply jet) is an aircraft (nearly always a fixed-wing aircraft) propelled by jet engines. Whereas the engines in propeller-powered aircraft generally achieve their maximum efficiency at much lower speeds and altitudes, je ...

and

spacecraft A spacecraft is a vehicle or machine designed to fly in outer space. A type of artificial satellite, spacecraft are used for a variety of purposes, including communications, Earth observation, meteorology, navigation, space colonization, p ...

NASA career

Fisher was selected as NASA Astronaut in 1980. His technical assignments included: scientific equipment operator for high altitude research on the WB-57F aircraft (1980–1981); astronaut medical support for the first four Shuttle missions (1980–1982); astronaut office representative for Extravehicular Mobility Unit (spacesuit) and Extravehicular Activity (EVA) procedures and development, including thermal vacuum testing of the suit (1981–1984); astronaut office representative for the Payload Assist Module (PAM-D) procedures and development (1982–1983); Astronaut office representative for Shuttle Mission Simulator (SMS) development (1983); support crewman for

STS-8 STS-8 was the eighth NASA Space Shuttle mission and the third flight of the Space Shuttle ''Challenger''. It launched on August 30, 1983, and landed on September 5, 1983, conducting the first night launch and night landing of the Space Shuttl ...

;

CAPCOM is a Japanese video game developer and video game publisher, publisher. It has created a number of List of best-selling video game franchises, multi-million-selling game franchises, with its most commercially successful being ''Resident Evil' ...

for STS-8 and STS-9; Remote Manipulator System (RMS) hardware and software development team (1983); Manned Maneuvering Unit (MMU) development team (1983); Deputy Director of NASA Government-furnished and Contractor-furnished Equipment (1982–1983); Chief of Astronaut Public Appearances (1985–1987); Member of the U.S. Air Force Scientific Advisory Board (1986–1991); NASA Medicine Policy Board (1987–1991); Astronaut Office Space Station Manned Systems Division, and Health Maintenance Facility (1987–1989); Astronaut Office representative on space crew selection and retention standards for Space Station (1989–1991). Fisher also continued to practice Emergency Medicine in the greater Houston area in conjunction with his astronaut duties. Fisher was a mission specialist on

STS-51-I STS-51-I was the 20th mission of NASA's Space Shuttle program and the sixth flight of Space Shuttle ''Discovery''. During the mission, ''Discovery'' deployed three communications satellites into orbit. The mission launched from Kennedy Space C ...

, which launched from

Kennedy Space Center The John F. Kennedy Space Center (KSC, originally known as the NASA Launch Operations Center), located on Merritt Island, Florida, is one of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's (NASA) ten field centers. Since December 1968 ...

Florida Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and to ...

, on August 27, 1985. STS-51-I was acknowledged as the most successful

Space Shuttle The Space Shuttle is a retired, partially reusable low Earth orbital spacecraft system operated from 1981 to 2011 by the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) as part of the Space Shuttle program. Its official program na ...

mission yet flown. The crew aboard Space Shuttle ''Discovery'' deployed three communications satellites, the Navy SYNCOM IV-4, the Australian AUSSAT, and American Satellite Company's ASC-1. They also performed a successful on-orbit rendezvous with the ailing 15,400 pound SYNCOM IV-3 satellite, and two EVAs (spacewalks) by Fisher and van Hoften to repair it, including the longest spacewalk in history (at that time). ''Discovery'' completed 112 orbits of the Earth before landing at

Edwards Air Force Base Edwards Air Force Base (AFB) is a United States Air Force installation in California. Most of the base sits in Kern County, but its eastern end is in San Bernardino County and a southern arm is in Los Angeles County. The hub of the base is E ...

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

, on September 3, 1985. Fisher logged over 170 hours in space, including 11 hours and 52 minutes of Extravehicular Activity (EVA). In 1990, Fisher led a study of the design of the planned space station. The ''New York Times'' reported that study "found the 500-foot structure was so complex and fragile that it could need up to 3,700 hours of maintenance a year by space-suited astronauts, as against the designers' original goal of 130 hours." In March of that year Fisher gained political notice "when he publicly accused his superiors at the space agency of ignoring the maintenance problem. Subsequently, he was called to Capitol Hill to testify before a number of committees."

Post-NASA

After leaving NASA, Fisher returned to the practice of emergency medicine. He remains in active medical practice in the greater Houston area at the present time.

Personal life

He married fellow physician and later fellow astronaut,

of St. Albans, New York on August 23, 1977. They have two daughters, Kristin Anne (b. July 29, 1983), who is a broadcast journalist, and Kara Lynne (b. January 10, 1989) who received her MBA degree in May 2017 from SMU in Dallas, Texas. The Fishers were divorced in 2000. Fisher collects Bill Graham Fillmore, Family Dog, and other rock/concert music posters from the 1965-1973 time frame. He is an amateur

luthier A luthier ( ; AmE also ) is a craftsperson who builds or repairs string instruments that have a neck and a sound box. The word "luthier" is originally French and comes from the French word for lute. The term was originally used for makers o ...

, specializing in making, repairing, and refinishing Neapolitan-style mandolins. Fisher is also the owner of Twenty-First Century Arms, a sporting goods company, and is both a Federal Firearms Licensee and NFA Firearms Dealer.

Organizations

* Diplomate of the American Board of Emergency Medicine * Fellow of the American College of Emergency Physicians * Fellow of the American Academy of Emergency Medicine * Fellow of the American Society of Addiction Medicine * Fellow of the World Association of Astronauts and Cosmonauts * Member, Association of Space Explorers (ASE) * Member, Wilderness Medical Society * Associate Air Traffic Control Specialist * Honorary Member, The St. Andrew Society of Tokyo and Yokohama * Board Member, Stanford on the Moon Project * Member, The Rock Poster Society (TRPS)

Awards and honors

* American Astronautical Society Victor A. Prather Award for Outstanding Achievement in the field of Extravehicular Activity (1985) * Federation Aeronautique Internationale V.M. Komarov Diploma for Outstanding Achievement in the Field of Exploration of Outer Space(Awarded to the STS-51 Crew) (1985) *

NASA Space Flight Medal The NASA Space Flight Medal is a decoration of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. According to its statutes, it is awarded "for significant achievement or service during individual participation as a civilian or military astronau ...

(1985) *

NASA Exceptional Service Medal The NASA Exceptional Service Medal is an award granted to U.S. government employees for significant sustained performance characterized by unusual initiative or creative ability that clearly demonstrates substantial improvement in engineering, ae ...

(1988) * Group Achievement Awards for EMU (Extravehicular Mobility Unit or "Space Suit") and MMU (Manned Maneuvering Unit) Development (1983, 1984) * Group Achievement Awards for Payload Assist Module (PAM) Software Development and Vehicle Integration (1983) * Named an ad hoc member of the U.S. Air Force Scientific Advisory Board (1986–1991) * Appointed a member of the NASA Medicine Policy Board (1987–1991)

References

External links

*
Spacefacts biography of William Frederick Fisher

* ttps://img.washingtonpost.com/rw/2010-2019/WashingtonPost/2011/04/21/Style/Images/ol8.jpg In 2011 Tracy A. Woodward photographed Bill and Kristin Fisherfor The Washington Post
Is there a Hidden Message in the Sgt. Peppers LP that Glows in UV Light?
{{DEFAULTSORT:Fisher, William Frederick 1946 births Living people Physician astronauts People from Dallas University of Florida College of Medicine alumni University of Houston alumni NASA civilian astronauts Space Shuttle program astronauts Stanford University alumni Spacewalkers