Robert Lyle Fisher, 90, passed away on June 12, 2025. He graduated Salutatorian from Bethesda-Chevy Chase High School in 1952 where he met his wife, Susan Glaser Fisher, with whom he was married for 68 years. He received a B.S from Yale in 1956 and graduated from Yale Medical School in 1959. He then embarked on a distinguished career as an Orthopedic Surgeon and Medical researcher. In 1967, he received the Kappa Delta Award from the American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons. That prize — sometimes referred to as the Nobel Prize of orthopedic research — is given to researchers who have made key discoveries and advanced the field of orthopedics.
He was elected to an American-British-Canadian traveling fellowship to England in 1973. He was the Director of Research at the Newington Children’s Hospital from 1967 to 1977 and was Chief of Orthopedic Surgery at Hartford Hospital from 1976 to 1992. In Connecticut, he was a pioneer in arthroscopic knee surgery, and over his career, he was an author of over 40 publications in peer-reviewed journals.
After his retirement, he served as president of the Wethersfield Historic Society, took German classes at Trinity College, and played piano for the Old Guard. In addition to his wife, he is survived by his three children, Bradford Lyle Fisher, Donald Myron Fisher, Janice Lynn Fisher, and grandchildren Hannah Kelley and Elizabeth Ann Fisher.
There will be a memorial service at Duncaster in Bloomfield CT at 11 AM on June 21. In lieu of flowers, donations may be sent to the Wethersfield Historical Society or Hartford Hospital