Fred Fisher, a pioneer in environmental law who co-founded the prominent nonprofit public-interest firm first known as the Sierra Club Legal Defense Fund, has died. He was 68.
Fisher died of cancer Wednesday at his home in Inverness Park, Calif., his family said.
"He was the gray eminence, the person behind the scene who kept things going," said James Moorman, the fund's first executive director, who became a lifelong friend. "Fred provided a continuity of leadership that was crucial to the fund growing into a significant environmental organization."
Fred Fisher -- The obituary in Monday's California section of Fred Fisher, one of the founders of the Sierra Club Legal Defense Fund, said a memorial service was planned for Sept. 9. The service will be at 1 p.m. Sept. 11 at the Golden Gate Club at the Presidio of San Francisco.
As one of several volunteer attorneys on the Sierra Club legal committee, Fisher fought to prevent the Mineral King Valley in the Sierra Nevada from being developed in the early 1970s by Walt Disney Productions Inc., now known as Walt Disney Co. The proposed ski resort was not built, but the foundation for a nonprofit public-interest law firm had been laid.
President Nixon had just signed the National Environmental Policy Act, and the government "wasn't paying much attention to the things required by that," said Donald Harris, Fisher's law partner and the fund's other co-founder.
"We decided to see if we could enforce it," Harris said.
During an interview earlier this year for a video on the origin of the fund in 1971, Fisher recalled "a ferment
The pair decided to found a law firm that could be "a new voice for the environment," Harris said. "It wasn't entirely smooth, but, hey, we had a wonderful time and made it work."
Harris recalled Fisher as "an intellectual force, able to find small corners of the law to set great precedents."
Over the last 34 years, the fund has provided free legal representation to more than 600 clients, large and small, including the Natural Resources Defense Council, the National Audubon Society and the Friends of the Everglades, according to the fund.
To distance itself from -- and make it clear the fund was independent of -- the Sierra Club, the fund's name was changed to the EarthJustice Legal Defense Fund in 1997.
The name change "was a difficult and painful experience" with fallout akin to choosing sides in a divorce, but Fisher had an ability to keep things on an even keel, Moorman said.
Fisher remained on the fund's board until his death.
