Kenneth John Fisher

Ken was a Navy pilot, Continental Airlines pilot and later a docent on the Midway Aircraft Carrier museum. Much more than just a pilot, Ken was creative, musical, athletic, kind, generous and fun. Everyone liked Ken.

Born in Cleveland Ohio, Ken grew up a Cleveland kid through and through. Playing baseball in the street, running with the neighbor kids, chasing the ice cream truck, while enjoying a traditional midwestern childhood in the 1950’s. A pivotal point in Ken’s maturing process was when he made the momentous decision to transition his hair style from a flattop to a combover. Apparently happy with the decision, the hair style stuck.

At Warrensville Heights High School, Ken concentrated on basketball and was profiled in the Cleveland newspaper as one of the top High School players in the city. The same year, he auditioned for the school musical and ended up playing the title role in Li’l Abner. Sports and musical theater, excelling at both at the same time. That was Ken Fisher.

On to Mount Union College in Alliance Ohio where the small college experience fit Ken to a tee. To help cover college expenses, he had a part time job as the campus mailman. For some reason, he especially enjoyed delivering mail to the girl’s dorms. He took his studies seriously but excelled at having fun. He joined Phi Kappa Tau, Epsilon Chapter and was President of the fraternity both his junior and senior year. He often said the movie Animal House was a fairly accurate depiction of his fraternity experience. The house had a piano and Ken would intently observe how some of the guys would play, then duplicate their efforts teaching himself to play by ear. No one could make up songs that rhyme with Nantucket quite like Ken Fisher.

As a biology major, he had planned to go to medical school but when a Navy recruiter came to campus looking for potential candidates for Navy pilot training, Ken was curious to find out more since, at that point in his life, he had never been inside an airplane. Much like the earlier decision to pivot to a combover, the flying thing stuck.

The biology degree didn’t go to waste however. Ken was great fun to go with to a zoo or aquarium since he knew how virtually every species reproduced.

After graduation he enjoyed a carefree summer. Heck, he didn’t have any worries, he had a job with a paycheck waiting. In the fall he was off to Pensacola for officer training and to learn how to fly.

After flight training, Ken went on to be a flight instructor in Pensacola, then on to Washington D.C. where he was assigned to fly the Chief of Naval Operations.

After the Navy, Ken was very proud to join Continental Airlines where he flew for 35 years. Ken retired as a Captain in 2013 after accumulating over 25,000 hours of flight time. Throughout his flying career Ken flew various types of aircraft such as the Douglas A-4 Skyhawk (his favorite), A-3 Skywarrior, the McDonnell Douglas DC-9, DC10 and MD-80, Boeing 737, 757,767 and had a rating in the Learjet.

After the terrorist attack in September 2001, Ken trained as a Federal Flight Deck Officer allowing him to carry a gun in the cockpit, which he did until he retired. Ken said nobody is going to take control of my airplane.

Ken liked to drive things other than airplanes, too. Boats, motorcycles, motorhomes and of course cars. If you asked him about the cars he had owned, better be ready for a long conversation starting with the Volkswagen Beetle convertible he used to deliver the mail in college. Don’t forget the MG Midget he bought brand new the summer after college which he drove from Cleveland to Pensacola to report for Officer Training. He said, at that time in his life he thought he had the world by the tail.

Helping people and giving back to the community was important to Ken. He was a member of the San Diego Nice Guys, an all volunteer charity group for 30 years and served as President in 2007. The Nice Guys were family to Ken and he enjoyed many great times with his friends in the club.

Many cherished hours were spent on the Midway as part of the Docent Thursday Watch Team. Helping museum visitors and telling lots of stories with his docent buddies while hanging out at the info desk on the flight deck continued to bring the fun to Ken’s life.

Ken is survived by his sister Marcia Eggleston and her husband Bob along with their two children and two grandchildren.

Ken’s long time partner in travel, love and life, Lynn Cihak will miss him every day.

Services will be held Friday, February 14th, 2:15 pm at Miramar NationalCemetery.