Dr. Fisher was given the task at the museum
of creating a department on astrology in 1924. The study of astronomy was actually an
early and life-long interest. When he was growing up on the farm in Orange Township,
Clyde's two uncles, both of whom were amateur astronomers, had him gazing through a
telescope at an early age. He was hooked.With his knack for making the most difficult
subjects understandable to young minds, Dr. Fisher sought ways to make his new department
child-friendly. German scientists were experimenting with an idea called a 'planetarium',
where the wonders of the night sky are projected on the inside ceiling of a building. With
no planetariums in this country, and little in the way of professional equipment, he
traveled to the Carl Zeiss Optical Works in Munich, Germany. The Germans had constructed
an instrument that was capable of projecting over 9,000 stars along with the sun and moon,
all of which moved across the domed ceiling in proper relation to each other. He never
forgot his first experience with the planetarium. "An involuntary 'Ah' swept over the
assembly," he recalled. "In short, I was astonished, overwhelmed. The illusion
of the immensity of space is perfect. It is the greatest invention ever devised by man as
a visual aid in teaching."
Excited, he hurried back to New York with plans for America's first planetarium. The
Great Depression intervened. That fact, along with other budget constraints at the museum,
shelved his project for ten long years. With a government loan and a bequest from the
estate of New York banker Charles Hayden, the $850,000 Hayden Planetarium project was
completed in 1935.
Clyde Fisher was far from a dry, boring scientist. With his teaching background in
Ohio, and his work with New York City's children, he was able to make the planets and
stars come alive. He once said "You can't make people interested in the stars if you
don't make it any more interesting than math or physics." He always thought that if
children understood and enjoyed astronomy, then surely adults would as well. Adults
certainly did. Fisher was a world-renowned lecturer on astronomy and other subjects.He
reveled in pointing out the fascinating facts about our solar system. When a columnist
from the New York Sun inquired of him in an interview how he seemed to move so fast
in all directions with his various projects, Fisher reminded him what a ride the columnist
was on, going between 600 and 700 miles an hour just seated in his chair, based on the
rotation of the earth.
Clyde Fisher really did move quickly in all directions. The September 1947 edition of
the Miami Alumnus called him 'the most versatile living natural historian.' At that
point, two years prior to his death, he had been a teacher, college president,
photographer, botanist, ornithologist, geologist, mammalogist, paleontologist, and
astronomer. The Alumnus article stated that "His relentless intellect led him
into one, then another field of natural science....author, world traveler, explorer,
lecturer-these are a few of the titles which describe him."