Max Fisher\'s Vintage Sterling Silver Waterman Fountain Pen w/Gold Nib Le Man 100
When you click on links to various merchants on this site and make a purchase, this can result in this site earning a commission. Affiliate programs and affiliations include, but are not limited to, the eBay Partner Network.
Max Fisher\'s Vintage Sterling Silver Waterman Fountain Pen w/Gold Nib Le Man 100:
$157.50
Max Fisher\'s Vintage Sterling Silver Waterman Fountain Pen w/18k Gold Nib - Not Sure Model Name or Number, Possibly Le Man 100??
Thisis an awesome vintage Waterman fountain Pen in NM condition in original presentation clam shell box. It was engraved for, and belonged to Max M. Fisher, a prominent American businessman, philanthropist and political adviserto presidents Nixon and Ford. This was given to a relative of Fisher\'s and comes from his collection. See photos for more details.
Below is a brief biography on Mr. Fisher written by Bill McGraw of the Detroit Free Press upon his death in 2005:
The intensely driven son of poor immigrants, Max Fisher combined an adroitbusiness vision, moderate politics, aggressive philanthropy and a keen senseof power to become one of the wealthiest and most influential Detroiters ever.
Despite his riches, global clout and range of interests, Fisher maintained sucha low profile that he was unknown to many metro Detroit residents. Yet foryears, corporate chieftains, U.S. presidents and prime ministers welcomedhim into the corridors of power on three continents. His death Thursday -- at96 -- will be mourned from Michigan to the Mideast.
Fisher died peacefully surrounded by his family at his home in Franklin atabout 11:30 a.m., said his son-in-law, Peter Cummings. Doctors did notimmediately give the family a cause of death. Cummings said Fisher hadbeen struggling since breaking his hip in December 2002. Fisher had been athis home in Palm Beach, Fla., until Feb. 22, when his wife, Marjorie, broughthim back to Detroit. He entered Beaumont Hospital for a few days beforereturning to his Franklin home last Friday.
His life was as extraordinary as it was long.
At home, after making his fortune in the oil business, Fisher changed the faceof the city and its suburbs. He raised millions for local charities, and nurturedrelatives and acquaintances -- including A. Alfred Taubman -- who continueas major players in metro-area business and culture.
\"Today I lost my best friend, and so did Detroit,\" said Taubman, theBloomfield Hills shopping mall magnate.
Away from Detroit, Fisher constantly traveled the world, handing out adviceand cutting deals, from Wall Street to the Oval Office to Israel. A ferventZionist, Fisher served as a counselor to Israeli prime ministers and aphilanthropist who delivered hundreds of millions of dollars in charitable fundsto Jewish causes.
The late Jacob Javits, the longtime U.S. senator from New York, once calledFisher \"perhaps the single most important lay person in the American Jewishcommunity.\"An unassuming six-footer known for being constantly on the phone andalways on the go, Fisher worked in the 27th floor of the Fisher Building, which was built by the Fisher automotive family, though Max Fisher -- who was notrelated -- owned the architectural gem in the 1960s and 70s.
Fisher became a confidant of Presidents Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford, andemerged in the 1960s as one of the nation\'s most prolific Republican Partyfundraisers. He led numerous American Jewish causes, and became anunofficial ambassador between the White House and Israel, conductingsensitive diplomatic missions during flashpoints in the Mideast conflict.
Former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger wrote in his memoirs that Fisher\"performed yeoman service as an informal liaison between the White Houseand the American Jewish leadership under both Nixon and Ford.\"
Fisher was a friend of longtime Detroit Mayor Coleman Young and an ally inYoung\'s efforts to rebuild Detroit. Fisher and Taubman, working with a taxbreak from Young, built the Riverfront Apartments in the 1980s next to JoeLouis Arena. At the time, most Oakland County-based business people wereshunning Detroit, though Fisher also helped fuel the growth of suburbia bymaking major investments in such projects as Somerset Mall and theSomerset Park Apartments in Troy.
Fisher also was credited with helping make Detroit\'s United Fund drive themost successful consolidated charitable appeal in the nation. More recently,he encouraged Detroit Symphony Orchestra officials to think big whenplanning to expand Orchestra Hall. Fisher made a critical $10 milliondonation, and the $60 million building ended up being called the Max M.Fisher Music Center, or simply, The Max. It opened in 2003.
Fisher did not seek fame and rarely was quoted in the media. He was a quietman who had a tendency to mumble. Many people outside of Detroit\'s Jewishcommunity assumed over the years that he was a member of the Fisherautomotive family that made its fortune building auto bodies and is thefreeway namesake, though there is no connection.
His wife of 51 years, Marjorie, is widely known as a vivacious hostess, andone of his children, Mary Fisher, gained international fame after she becamea leading AIDS activist in the 1990s. She had contracted HIV from herhusband.
Despite his public reticence, Fisher, paradoxically, made sure the world wouldnot soon forget him. He left an authorized biography, the 564-page ``QuietDiplomat,\" by Peter Golden, and an archive of more than 300,000 items,including letters, maps, memos, photos and cancelled checks.
Fisher remained active well into his 90s, and it was his efforts to repair thedamage from his close friend Taubman\'s business scandal that turned intoone of Fisher\'s last hurrahs.
In 2001, according to Fortune magazine, Fisher played a key role in solvingthe seemingly intractable problems of class-action lawsuits against Sotheby\'s,the New York sale house whose controlling stockholder was Taubman.
Fisher, a Sotheby\'s board member, suggested Sotheby\'s approach its rival,Christie\'s International PLC, to team up on a $512-million settlement with100,000 clients who had been defrauded in the price-fixing scheme in whichTaubman was convicted in 2002. That plan eventually was enacted.
``Fisher has a bear trap for a brain and smells B.S. a mile away,\" oneSotheby\'s board member told Fortune.
Fisher\'s father and mother, Velvil Fisch and Malka Brody, emigrated fromRussia to escape religious persecution. His father, who arrived first, settled inPittsburgh, changed his name to William Fisher and became a travelingpeddler. In 1907, he sent for his wife, who changed her name to Mollie. MaxFisher was born July 15, 1908. The family moved to Salem, Ohio the nextyear.
\"I was insecure when I was a kid,\" Golden quoted Fisher as saying. \"I wasdriven to be a success. I wanted to make my mark.\"
Fisher won a football scholarship to Ohio State University, but an injury endedhis playing career before he could earn a letter. He was an aggressive player:He once blocked a punt with his mouth and lost four teeth.
Upon graduation in 1930, the first full year of the Depression, Fisher hadplanned to drive his 1916 Ford Roadster to Cleveland to start a full-time job ata clothing store.
Instead he drove to Detroit, where his father already had moved his wife andthree daughters so William could pursue business interests. They lived onCollingwood Avenue on the near northwest side.
The Depression staggered Detroit, but Fisher flourished as a salesman in hisfather\'s Keystone Oil Refining Co., which reclaimed used motor oil from gasstations and sold it.
Fisher learned everything he could about the oil business, even taking nightcourses at the University of Michigan and hiring a tutor. He drove around townwith samples of oil in the backseat and took dates to see the refinery insouthwest Detroit. Once, dressed in a suit, he closed a deal with a distributorwho was hunting geese in a muddy meadow.
Fisher eventually joined a Swiss-born Detroit businessman who co-owned theAurora Gasoline Co.
Thanks to Fisher\'s planning and deal-making, Aurora prospered during WorldWar II, fueling a significant portion of the armament-producing factories thatmade Detroit the nation\'s Arsenal of Democracy.
In 1959, the partners merged Aurora with its former partner, Ohio Oil, a dealworth more than $15 million to Fisher. Ohio Oil became Marathon Oil in 1962.When U.S. Steel purchased Marathon in 1982, Fisher\'s 665,115 shares ofstock brought him more than $83 million, according to his biography.
Among Fisher\'s other notable business ventures was a stint as head of UnitedBrands Co., a multi-national food products firm, in which Fisher also was alarge stockholder. Fisher, then almost 67, became chairman during a crisis in1975 and steered the company through three years of restructuring.
In 1977, Fisher joined Taubman, another close friend, Henry Ford II, andother investors in outofferding Mobil to buy the 77,000-acre Irvine Ranch inOrange County, Calif., for $337 million. At the time, it was said to be thelargest real estate transaction in U.S. history. The Detroiters sold their sharein 1982. Fisher walked away with a $100 million profit.
Fisher made his first visit to Israel in 1954, and over time became a involvedin the leadership of several important Jewish-American groups.
Perhaps his most important moment took place during the Yom Kippur War,when Egypt and Syria attacked Israel in October 1973. The Israeli army suffered serious losses, but fought back. It quickly needed arms and fighterplanes from the U.S. as the battles dragged on.
With American officials debating the strategic consequences of becominginvolved in the war, Fisher worked around the clock, pressing members of theNixon administration to re-supply the Israelis. Having helped Nixon win twoelections, Fisher presented Nixon with a letter in a White House meeting.
\"I\'ve worked hard for you and I\'ve never asked for anything for myself,\" Fisherwas quoted as writing in his biography. \"But I\'m asking you now. Please sendthe Israelis what they need. You can\'t let them be destroyed.\"
Leonard Garment, a Nixon aide, told Monthly Detroit magazine in 1980 thatFisher was instrumental in convincing Nixon to start a procession of cargoplane transports to Israel.
\"He was all over the place, quite literally,\" Garment said. \"I know he talked toeveryone, pressed every button, called every card.\"
Fisher got interested in domestic politics and fund-raising in the early 1960sand played a key role in Nixon\'s 1968 campaign. Working with John Mitchell,Nixon\'s future attorney general, Fisher and the Nixon campaign established a``Jewish desk\" to coordinate outreach. Fisher barnstormed the country, urgingtraditionally Democratic Jewish groups to support Nixon and band together forlonger-term lobbying to support Israel.
After Nixon became the only president to resign from office, Fisher remainedfaithful, telling him in a letter that \"history will record the great contribution youhave made to the world.\" Nixon replied: \"In the world of politics, this kind offriendship is very rare and therefore deeply cherished.\"
Fisher\'s relationship with the next president, Gerald Ford, a Grand RapidsRepublican whom he knew well, was even closer. Ford invited Fisher toattend his swearing-in ceremony, and during Ford\'s two-year presidency,Fisher visited the White House 25 times and talked to the president almost asoften on his private phone line.
Fisher, a moderate, was never comfortable with the right-wing faction of theRepublican Party personified by Ronald Reagan. Even though hecampaigned for Reagan and dealt with him on Middle East issues, Fishernever regained the Oval Office access that he had enjoyed under Nixon andFord during the 12 years of the Reagan and George H.W. Bush presidencies.
Fisher was a great friend of Detroit, especially as the city\'s perpetual crisisbegan to intensify in the 1960s.
After the 1967 riot, he headed New Detroit Inc., the business-civil rightscoalition, and later twisted arms to establish Detroit Renaissance, the elitecivic organization made up of top executives; Fisher headed it from 1970 to1981 and from 1983 to 1986.
Fisher is widely credited with helping to convince Henry Ford II to initiate thebuilding of the $337-million Renaissance Center, which helped boost Detroit\'ssagging spirits in the mid-1970s, even though the project turned out to be afinancial failure.
Beyond Taubman, Fisher influenced numerous people in metro Detroit,including his son-in-law, Peter Cummings, a civic-minded real-estatedeveloper and Republican activist, and a nephew, Stephen Ross, who lastyear donated $100 million to the University of Michigan Business School.
Fisher\'s first wife, Sylvia Krell, died in 1952.
In addition to his wife Marjorie, and daughter Mary, Fisher is survived bydaughters Jane Sherman, Julie Fisher Cummings and Marjorie Fisher; a son,Phillip Fisher; two sisters; 19 grandchildren and 13 great grandchildren.
As he grew older, Fisher grew accustomed to receiving praise and took it instride.
In an interview in 2003 before the opening of The Max, Fisher was typicallyself-effacing.
\"Look,\" he said. \"I don\'t think it\'s good taste to talk about what you thinkyou\'ve done. Do what you think you\'d like to do. That\'s it.\"
***Please see my other listings for more from this collection. Please also check out my other items under user ID millerhousedotca for many more great historical items and much more (as well as a 5000+ positive response rating). Thank you. ***
Buyerpays shipping. I SHIP WORLDWIDE. Feel free to ask any questions or raise any concerns that you may have. I try to answer all questions, but questions asked during the listing\'s closing hours may not get answered in time.
Please view my other items up for sale.Combine items and save on shipping.
Max Fisher\'s Vintage Sterling Silver Waterman Fountain Pen w/Gold Nib Le Man 100:
$157.50