Raymond John Fisher

Raymond John Fisher, 58, passed away unexpectedly on December 12, 2020, in Bally, Pennsylvania. An incredibly driven and generous man, he served as an anchor for his family, especially his eight younger siblings. He blazed a trail out of his Amish childhood to attend Lancaster Mennonite High School (LMHS) as a first generation high school graduate. After LMHS he spent one semester studying abroad at Bienenberg Bible School in Switzerland, then moved on to Messiah College before transferring to Harvard College. He spent a year in Cairo, Egypt, as a Presidential Intern at the American University of Cairo before enrolling at New York University School of Law. He received his MA in politics and JD from NYU in 1990.

Ray worked his way up the professional ladder as a corporate finance attorney, becoming a partner at leading law firms in New York, London, and Frankfurt. In his early 50s, Ray made the unusual move of changing careers, studying math and economics in his free time, which paid off when he was admitted into a master’s degree program at the Harvard Kennedy School. Upon graduation in 2015, he was hired by the Federal Reserve Bank, where he worked as a team leader in PMI policy, lending his astute mind to the largest financial problems of the federal government, including important contributions to the Bank’s pandemic response.

Driven as he was, Ray was always keenly doting on his family, taking his role as the firstborn very seriously. He purchased a sizable estate in Bally, Pennsylvania, and went out of the way to build a house large enough to host all thirty-five of his siblings, in-laws, parents, nieces, and nephews -- where they usually gathered on holidays and for other special occasions. In June 2014, he married the love of his life, Juan Carlos Palomino Lugo, as soon as Pennsylvania law allowed it.

Ray will always be remembered by those who knew him for choosing to extend strength and grace in the face of adversity and rejection. He longed for equality and justice and was a lifelong advocate of rights for the LGBTQ community, whether at the federal level of immigration rights or within local church communities and organizations. As a gay man who came of age in the 1980s and who found that his sexual identity was not initially understood or accepted by some of those closest to him, he never gave up. He simply loved, gave, and continued to enlarge the capacity for love of everyone who was around him.

Ray was an inveterate scholar, always finding a new passion to research and master, whether languages (including Arabic, French, Portuguese, Spanish, German, and Pennsylvania Dutch), gardening, politics, the economy, music and the arts, wine and international cheeses and cuisine, or world cultures and customs. Ray had an uncanny ability to network with friends and family near and far away. He was incredibly generous, hosting many family members and friends in the many places he lived, including Frankfurt, London, New York City, Boston, and Pennsylvania.

He is survived by his husband, Juan Carlos Palomino Lugo; his parents, Daniel and Priscilla Fisher; his siblings: Ann Fisher, Martha Fisher, Wilma (Blaine) Lefler, Marlene (Charles) Haws, Twila Fisher, Linford (Jo) Fisher, Lisa (John) Gottshall, and Tiffany Fisher; and nineteen nephews and nieces. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made in his name to the following charities (among many) that Ray supported in his lifetime: Immigration Equality, Mennonite Central Committee, and The New York Times Neediest Cases Fund.