Pauline Clemens Fisher

Pauline Clemens Fisher died July 14, 2018, at her home in the Green House Village, Goshen.  She was 91 years old.

She was born to Clara Ruth Clemens and Ernest Rittenhouse Clemens on November 15, 1926, in her mother’s home town of Line Lexington, Pennsylvania.  When Pauline was six years old, her family moved nearby to her father’s community, Lansdale, Pennsylvania, situated more conveniently to his work as a banker in Lansdale, and, eventually, as cashier of the Harleysville National Bank and Trust Company.

Lansdale and its surrounding region shaped Pauline’s interests and identity.  An only child, she benefited from participation in a lively network of relatives, neighbors, and school friends.  Her father’s love of history and the natural world drew Pauline to accompany him to fishing ponds, birding outings, and colonial-era cemeteries.  She also rode the train to Philadelphia to shop with her mother in Center City and to hear classical music with her parents in the Robin Hood Dell (where, in her teenage years, she also witnessed Dinah Shore introduce a young Frank Sinatra).  At the heart of Pauline’s youthful formation were the sermons, singing, and social milieu of the Plains Mennonite Church, where her grandfather, Jacob C. Clemens, served as minister.  After the loss of her mother, Clara, to cancer in 1952, Pauline gained a stepmother in her former professor of French at Goshen College, Lois Gunden, through her father’s 1958 remarriage.

Following graduation with high honors from Lansdale High School in 1944, Pauline traveled west to attend Goshen College, where she received a bachelor’s degree in French and English education in 1948, again at the top of her class.  At Goshen College, she also met her life partner, fellow student John J. Fisher, whose return after graduate study to the English faculty at Goshen College anchored their lives as members of Goshen’s college and civic communities and of College Mennonite Church.  Theirs was an auspicious meeting of hearts and minds that produced two daughters and lasted 66 years, until John’s death in 2014.

In a classroom career spanning 40 years, Pauline taught English in North Wales High School (Pennsylvania), Middlebury High School, Bethany Christian High School, Towncrest Junior High School, and Goshen High School.  For several terms, she also led teacher preparation courses and supervised student teachers for Goshen College.  Informally, she assisted her professor husband to lead numerous international study tours.  As a teacher, Pauline added to her formal training the natural gifts of communication, humor, and human empathy to win over students and educate effectively, whether elucidating To Kill a Mockingbird, driving home the parts of English speech, or helping college students navigate the mysteries of the West of Ireland or communist East Germany.

Outside the classroom, Pauline supported her family’s well-being, women’s higher education, international student scholarships, and peace studies.  She was a member over many years of the Goshen branch of the American Association of University Women, including serving as the AAUW president.  She was active in book discussion groups and in the collaborative Goshen community-college Afternoon Sabbatical program.  Following retirement, she joined her husband in the local organization Seniors for Peace.  Enthusiasm for the exploits of her five grandsons led to Pauline’s proud attendance at countless music performances and soccer matches.  A recent joy was the arrival of her great-grandson, James Ernest.

Pauline was an advocate for Goshen College.  Her generous hospitality over the years included entertaining notable guests of the college, including former Prime Minister Earl Clement Attlee, to whom she served porridge; Senator Richard Schweiker, a childhood playmate; and the Irish poets Seamus Heaney and Peter Fallon, personal friends.

Pauline valued the many friendships she made, and retained, over a lifetime. While she was a kind-hearted listener, she was also a good talker, with a sure ability to deliver an entertaining story.  She had an instinct for the fun and the funny.  She worked a charm on children, a trait inherited from her mother.  Even in her final years, as a resident of Waterford Crossing and the Green House Village of Goshen, Pauline’s compassionate curiosity won her new friends among neighbors and caretakers.  Upon Pauline’s passing a much younger acquaintance noted, “I felt like a co-conspirator when I talked with her—she was always detailing something she was excited about, as if laying out secret plans.”

Pauline is survived by her daughters, Susan (Lee) Fisher Miller of Evanston, Ill., and Margaret (Jeff) Aeschliman of Salem, Ore.; five loving grandsons, Peter (Leah) Miller, Christopher Miller, John Miller, Spencer Aeschliman, and Stuart Aeschliman; and a great-grandson, James Ernest Miller.

Visitation will be held at College Mennonite Church on Friday, July 27, 3-5 p.m. and 6-8 p.m.  A memorial service will take place Saturday, July 28, at 11 a.m., also at College Mennonite Church.

Memorial gifts may be made to Goshen College or Mennonite Central Committee.

Yoder-Culp Funeral Home is assisting the family with arrangements.