Robert Blanchard Fischer passed away March 20, 2013. He was born October 24, 1920, to Charles Albert Fischer and Matilda Nylen Fischer in Hartford, Connecticut. Following the death of his father in 1922, he moved with his mother and two brothers to Wheaton, Illinois. He attended Wheaton College (BS in Chemistry in 1942) and the University of Illinois (PhD in Analytical Chemistry and Electrical Engineering in 1946). He was on the faculty at the University of Illinois (1946-1948) and Indiana University (1948-1963). He was the founding Dean of the School of Science and Mathematics at California State University, Dominguez Hills, (1963-1979) and the Provost and Senior Vice President of Biola University (1979-1989). He lived in Rancho Palos Verdes, California, from 1963 to 2002 and then in Fullerton, California.
Robert Fischer contributed as a scientist to the safe harnessing of nuclear energy through his studies of deuterium ("heavy water") with the Manhattan Project during World War II. He studied the application of the electron microscope to scientific investigation and led the initial successful efforts to chemically add fluoride to toothpaste in order to prevent cavities.
As an educator, Robert Fischer taught thousands of students as they prepared for careers in many fields, helped create a new university at Cal State Dominguez Hills, and led the transformation of Biola College to Biola University. He wrote scores of scholarly articles and authored textbooks about electron microscopy and quantitative chemical analysis. For lay readers seeking to properly integrate science and faith, he wrote Science, Man, and Society as well as God Did It, But How? and Who Is God?
Robert Fischer was a highly devout man, and aimed to serve and demonstrate his faith daily. He taught Bible classes and preached in several churches and was active at different times at College Church (Wheaton, Illinois), Twin Cities Bible Church (Urbana, Illinois), United Presbyterian Church (Bloomington, Indiana), Peninsula Baptist Church (Palos Verdes, California), Rolling Hills Covenant Church (Palos Verdes, California), and Evangelical Free Church (Fullerton, California).
Beyond Robert Fischer’s many accomplishments, much of his enjoyment in life centered on his wife and family. Though orphaned of his own father and raised by a single mother, Robert Fischer was himself a role model of a loving father and faithful husband. He is survived by his wife of 66 years Mary Ellen (Mitchell) (Fullerton, California) and his five children – Lois Nyema (La Mirada, California), Marcia Fischer (Port Hueneme, California), Philip (Juli) Fischer (Rochester, Minnesota), Vivian (Mark) Struck (Rochester, Minnesota), and Valerie Mitchell (Silverado, California) – along with grandchildren Luenne, Nicholas (Rina), Natalie, Melanie, Abigail, Sarah, Bonnie, Delia, James, Melinda, Jonathan, Peter, Joanna, Stephanie, Daniel (Kendra), Jodi, Jason, Robert, and Jack as well as great-grandchildren Lahti, Derek, Evan, and Jade.