Fischer, who remained active in Alaska affairs into his 90s, died at his home in Anchorage after a long period of declining health.
Vic Fischer, a father of Alaska statehood who as a child escaped both Adolf Hitler and Joseph Stalin, died Sunday evening. He was 99.
In between those times, Fischer served in Alaska’s territorial and state legislatures; guided the creation and growth of various Alaska communities, including Anchorage; served high in President John F. Kennedy’s administration; developed university research in Alaska; and avidly participated in civic affairs as an unapologetic liberal — as he continued to do until not long before his death.
Louis was usually absent, leaving Vic, his brother George and their mother alone and in peril. Vic grew up speaking both German and Russian as the boys were shuttled between the two countries. In 1931, facing famine in Russia, Markoosha sent them to live with friends in Berlin. After Hitler seized power in 1933, putting their communist hosts in danger, the boys were smuggled back to Russia.
Fischer arrived in Alaska in 1950 to take his first job as a community planner, with the Bureau of Land Management. Among his duties, he helped create the towns of Cantwell and Tok. He later served as Anchorage’s first planning director, saving the Delaney Park Strip from development, and planning the Chester Creek greenbelt and Westchester Lagoon.
In the early 1960s, Fischer served as assistant secretary of the Housing and Home Finance Agency in Washington, D.C. In that position, he directed rebuilding of Alaska housing after the 1964 Good Friday earthquake.
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