Ruth Fisher passed away on February 19 at the age of 87.
She and her husband, Jim, were one of the first to open a Volvo dealership in the United States in 1957. Ruth took over the business after Jim passed away. She operated the dealership alongside her children and grandchildren.
Her family remembers Ruth as a head-strong business woman, with a warm and kind heart.
Molly Fisher-Murray is the assistant manager at Jim Fisher Volvo, and Ruth's granddaughter.
"Everyone knows her as a hardworking, successful, tough business woman. But when I think of my grandma, I just think of her as caring, and loving, and such a compassionate woman. She would do anything, not just for my cousins, sister and I, but for anybody," said Fisher-Murray.
Fisher-Murray tells KATU that one of her favorite memories of her grandmother was her Halloween tradition.
"Every single Halloween, she would put on this old school but cute bear mask, and would go around to every single employee, and would deliver a little candy basket with an apple inside. She kept that tradition up every year she was here. It was so funny to see her go around and give her candy baskets to everybody. But she made sure there was a healthy apple in there from her orchard," Fisher-Murray said.
Ruth has been compared to other Portland business tycoons like Gert Boyle, who passed away last year.
"They didn't personally know each other. My grandmother definitely looked at Gert Boyle as a trailblazer herself and really looked up to her and everything she did for Columbia," Fisher-Murray said. "She wasn't Gert Boyle. She was herself. She was Ruth Fisher".
-Written by Ellen Gordon, KATU News
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