February 23, 1931 (New York, NY) – January 16, 1951; 19 years old
Unmarried
Last local address: Indian Hill Road, Norwalk (Silvermine)
Service Number: 12320698
Korean War Project Key No: 34423
Unit: 1st Cavalry Division, 7th Cavalry Regiment, Headquarters & Headquarters Company
Born to Meyer (1899-1961) and Gertrude Fischer (1907-1982). Two sisters, Arleen (1929-1960) and Susan (1938-1995).
Casualty Location: Wonju, South Korea.
Graduated from The Franklin School (89th Street) in New York City, now called the Dwight School. Photo and caption provided by Katie Bader, Library Assistant, Dwight School.
The official cause of death is listed as “non-hostile death” – “accident.” PFC Fischer’s niece, Jan Brummett, wrote in an e-mail that “he died showing off his rifle and how it worked to two Korean ladies.”
From the Norwalk Hour February 8, 1951
VET KILLED IN KOREA KNOWN IN WESTPORT
George Fischer, the only son of Mr. and Mrs. Meyer Fischer of 1085 Park Avenue, New York City, was killed in action in Korea, it was learned by friends in this section this week. The Fischer family are members of the Longshore Beach and Country Club, Westport, and the young veteran was a member of the junior set, at the club.
From The New York Times August 27, 1951
BOYS SET UP CLUB AS ‘LIVING MEDAL’ FOR G.I., 19, KILLED IN KOREAN WAR
George Fischer, a New York boy who couldn’t wait to get into the Army, enlisted soon after his graduation in 1948 from the Franklin School, 18 West Eighty-Ninth Street. There he had played on the basketball team that won the city-wide private school championship the season before. When war broke out in Korea, he requested duty there. With the Seventh Regiment of the First Cavalry Division, he was in action all the way from Pusan to the Yalu River. Wounded in November 1950, he volunteered upon recovery for the regimental Ranger patrol. It was while serving as a Ranger that he was killed last January 16 – a month before his twentieth birthday. His body was brought home for burial; the funeral service was at the Riverside Memorial Chapel last Thursday. His parents, Mr. and Mrs. Meyer Fischer of 1085 Park Avenue, received the flag that had draped his casket, and another flag from the Government. But PFC George Fischer had won no special decoration and his fighting career was distinguished only by the fact that he had volunteered, served, and gave his life. It was this aspect of it that caused Edward Litt, a friend of the family, of 241 Central Park West, to interest the Jacob Riis Settlement in a new kind of memorial. As Mr. Litt explained it yesterday: “Instead of taking Mr. Lincoln and Mr. Roosevelt – everybody knows about them – here’s a great hero as a fellow who did an individual great deed. There’s got to be a beginning somewhere, so why not start with something named after a boy like that?” Mrs. Jacob A. Riis and Miss Helen Nelson, executive director of the settlement, warmly agreed. So, without the parents’ knowledge, the George Fischer Boys’ Club was formed at a meeting in the Theodore Roosevelt gym at 48 Henry Street. It has fifteen members from 11 to 14. They wear the words “George Fischer” on their jerseys. Their adviser is Charles Centrella, the settlement’s director of boys’ work. And their favorite activity, as was their namesake’s, is basketball.
From The Norwalk Hour August 28, 1951
EX-SILVERMINE YOUTH HONORED
Boys Club In New York Is George Fischer Memorial; Was Killed in Korea
The memory of a young summer resident of Silvermine who was killed before his twentieth birthday in Korea is being perpetuated in New York City by a boys’ club set up expressly as a memorial and bearing his name. George Fischer, Son of Mr. and Mrs. Meyer Fischer of 1085 Park Avenue, New York, summer residents of Indian Hill Road, Silvermine, was killed last January 16, a month before his twentieth birthday while serving with a Ranger unit attached to the Seventh Regiment of the First Cavalry Division. Funeral services were held for the youth last Thursday at the Riverside Memorial Chapel after his body had been brought from Korea. George had enlisted soon after his graduation from school in New York, had served, and had been killed. A friend of the family, Edward Litt of 241 Central Park West, however, though that memory of the young lad, even if he hadn’t won any medals, should be preserved. So he approached the Jacob Riis settlement and suggested that they set up a living memorial for the boy. The result is that today there exists the “George Fischer Club,” an organization of 13 New York youngsters from the age of 11 to 14. The boys have “George Fischer” printed on their jerseys and their favorite pastime is the game of basketball in which George had excelled.
From The New York Times, an unknown date
FISCHER – George J., PFC, U.S.A., killed in Korea, Jan 16, 1951, son of Mr. and Mrs. Meyer Fischer, brother of Arleen Weinberg and Susan Fischer. Services Thursday, 2 P.M. at “The Riverside,” 76th Street and Amsterdam Avenue.
Buried in Mount Hebron Cemetery, 130-04 Horace Harding Expressway, Queens, New York; Block 116, Ref 11, Lot 3/4 351 & 1/4 352, Grave 6. Photo contributed by Mt. Hebron Cemetery.
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