Robert F. ‘Bob’ Fischer, judge on the Appellate Court of Maryland, dies

Judge Robert F. “Bob” Fischer, who retired from the Appellate Court of Maryland, died of complications from Parkinson’s disease April 16 at the Pineapple House at Sapphire Lakes, a Naples, Florida, assisted living facility.

The former Ellicott City and Grasonville resident was 92.

“I first met Bob in the fall of 1994 when I joined the court, and I must be his No. 1 fan,” said U.S. District Court Judge Ellen L. Hollander.

“He commanded love and affection from the bench and the bar,” she said. “He was warm, humble, collegial and aimed his rulings for the court by the demands of the law. He had a dignity about him and it was an honor to serve with him and be his colleague.”

Retired Appellate Court Judge Paul E. Alpert was both a colleague and longtime friend.

“Bob was just a terrific fellow,” Judge Alpert said. “He was very honest and courageous and he took positions and didn’t care if you agreed or not. He was very straightforward.”

Robert Frederick Fischer, son of John Ernest Fischer, a compositor, also known as a typesetter, for The Baltimore Sun, and Anna Karis Fischer, a homemaker, was born in Baltimore and raised in Westport, on land where his grandfather, an immigrant form Lithuania, owned and operated a beer garden.

His mother died when he was 10, and his father nine years later.

Judge Fischer told The Sun in 1988 that he grew up “with no prospects at all. I know how hard it is to advance in the world.

“I am somebody who struggled.”

In Judge Fischer’s case, the way out was wrestling, where he became a champion on the varsity team, along with his brother, Ernest Fischer, at the old Southern High School. There, in 1946, he won his first of two Maryland Scholastic Association championships.

“All of my friends went to reform school. We didn’t because of athletics,” he told The Sun.

At the University of Maryland, College Park, he was a wrestling champion for two years and undefeated his senior year.

After earning a bachelor’s degree in 1954, he enlisted in the Air Force where he served from 1955 to 1958 as a jet fighter instructor in Greenville, Mississippi.

After being discharged, he worked as a probation officer by day while studying law at night at the University of Baltimore.

He earned his law degree and passed the bar in 1961 then became an associate partner at Pierson & Pierson in Towson, where he worked for a decade.

In 1969, Judge Fischer, and his wife, the former Sally Watson, a Baltimore County public schools educator, moved to Ellicott City where he established a law practice, and also served as a Howard County assistant solicitor and in 1972 county solicitor.

A Democrat, in 1973, he was appointed a District Court judge, and four years later, to the Circuit Court by Gov. Blair Lee III, and in 1987 became administrative judge of the Howard County Circuit Court.
Judge Fischer was appointed to the Maryland Appellate Court, the second highest court in the state, in 1988.

“The reputation he forged on the Circuit Court reflected a genuine concern for the underdog,” The Sun reported at the time of his appointment to the Appellate Court.

Judge Fischer at times earned the ire of prosecutors for giving defendants a second chance.

“If I thought a person was sincere about changing his pattern of life, I was inclined to give them an opportunity, if it was feasible,” he told the newspaper. “I stuck my neck out a lot. I’ve taken chances on people who were not entirely safe risks, and fortunately, most of them turned out well.”

He added: “If I found out they were not going to change and stop committing crimes, I had to warehouse them. But, I believe you should give people an opportunity.”

Judge Fischer developed his views of state prisons when he was a young lawyer.

“I knew of several young men who went to prison, and they were brutalized and raped,” he told The Sun. “I realize managing violent people is not easy, and the prisons are overcrowded. So, protecting the average person is extremely difficult.”

Judge Fischer, who once sentenced a 15-year-old Laurel boy convicted of rape to five years in the county jail “because I did not want to put him in the state prison system. It would have ruined his life.”

“He was a very good lawyer and judge and his record speaks for itself,” Judge Alpert said. “He was very well respected as a lawyer and as an Appellate Court judge.”

“He had an extraordinary judicial temperament, warmth and charm, and these are traits that stand out in my mind,” Judge Hollander said. “Appellate Court is so different from being a Circuit Court judge because you function as a group.”

Judge Fischer retired in 1997, but for a few years afterward, continued part time as a senior judge in various courts throughout the state until moving to Naples in 2002.

Judge Fischer, who had been elected to the Maryland Athletic Hall of Fame and the National Wrestling Hall of Fame, enjoyed painting landscapes, making furniture, reading, and playing tennis and golf.

He was a former communicant of St. Peter’s Episcopal Church in Ellicott City and was a member of Trinity-By-The-Cove Episcopal Church in Naples.

Plans for a memorial service to be held in September are incomplete.

In addition to his wife of 67 years, a retired special education teacher, Judge Fischer is survived by a son, Kurt J. Fischer, of Towson; a daughter, Keri Corless, of Wellesley, Massachusetts; and five grandchildren.