Feature on Clyde Fisher. TOPIC:
PEOPLE
By Rich Wallace in July, 1999
SIDNEY MAN TOUCHES THE LAST FRONTIER |
Clyde Fisher visited with Thomas Edison during a visit to the Hayden Planetarium. Fisher helped create the museum with the assistance of New York banker Charles Hayden.
For centuries, human beings have gazed up to the stars, wondering what secrets lay locked away in the distance. From many generations before the Greeks to the present day, mankind has sought more knowledge to help explain the mysteries above. Sidney, Ohio made its own contribution to the ongoing study of our last frontier. An inquisitive, young Shelby County man did more than any other American to make the heavens understandable to all. This is his story. Our country's foray into astronomy began with the opening of the Hayden Planetarium in September 1935. It was a proud day for Dr. Clyde Fisher, the curator of the planetarium. He had come a long way. Clyde Fisher was born May 22, 1878, on a farm along county road 25A in Orange Township. At the 1892 Orange Township school commencement exercises for the 9th grade, young Clyde gave the valedictory oration on the topic: "Examples of Great Men." It was to be a good omen for the young student. After graduating from the Sidney schools, he taught school for a period of time, and then furthered his education at Ohio Northern University. He transferred to Miami University in Oxford, graduating in 1905. While a student at Miami, his extraordinary intellect and natural curiosity allowed him to master the fields of geology and zoology, as well as astronomy. He taught school in Troy for two years, where he was one of the first teachers to introduce geological projects into a curriculum that centered mostly on the three 'Rs.' Clyde Fisher subsequently moved to Florida, where he was a professor at DeFuniak College and taught ornithology at the University of Florida. He thirsted for additional knowledge, and returned to post-graduate studies at John Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland, to study botany, obtaining his Ph. D. in 1913. [ Back ] [ Next ] [ Up ] [ New Search ] |
