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More than a half-century since George Fisher first set foot in the world of golf course maintenance he has been recognized with the Carolinas Golf Course Superintendents Association’s highest honor. Fisher will receive the association’s Distinguished Service Award at the 51st annual Conference and Trade Show in Myrtle Beach, SC that runs November 18-20.
Fisher, 68, was first a golf course superintendent but later moved to the commercial sales side of the industry forging an impeccable reputation with Charlotte, NC-based Smith Turf and Irrigation, the largest Toro distributor in North America. He was a wide-eyed high school kid whose part time work at then Kannapolis Golf club saw him dragged along to his first Carolinas GCSA meeting at Charlotte Country Club, perhaps as early as 1960.
Something clicked that day as he listened to legends such as Palmer Maples Jr., who would lead GCSAA as president in 1975, trading tales and tricks of the trade. So much so that by the time Fisher got home that evening, he could see his future stretching out before him. He finished high school then spent a year at military school before being drafted into the U.S. Army in 1966.
When he left the service in 1968, professors at Virginia Tech. told him he was already too long in the tooth to think about studying for a career in turfgrass. Virginia Tech. was the place to be for turfgrass back then but Fisher, they said, had been out of the business of studying for too long. Younger students would leave him in their dust.
Undaunted, he put his name down for the new turfgrass program at North Carolina State University and in 1971 was among the program’s first graduating class. Fisher joined the golf course maintenance team at Alamance Country Club in 1971 and attended night classes to eventually secure a four-year degree. He left Alamance in 1980 and joined then Richmond Power Company as a golf irrigation territory representative. In 1988, he joined Smith Turf and Irrigation, where, in many ways, he remains despite his formal retirement in 2011. There he was golf sales manager and later manager of customer relations.
It says much about him and his place, not just at STI, but also within the industry that the company asked him to stay on as a “goodwill ambassador.” On special projects and at trade shows as well as other events, Fisher’s ready smile and expertise remain a valued presence. In a special letter announcing Fisher’s retirement STI president, Steve Smith, cited his “unique ability to identify” with his contacts in the industry “on a personal and professional level that is rare in this day and age.”
“Throughout George’s career, it has been his relationships with his customers, vendors, peers and even competitors that have set him apart,” Smith continued. “It is his professional, respectful approach, blended with his courteous manner and his ability to instantly identify with people that led him to develop close ties across a broad spectrum in the green industry. Golf course superintendents, architects, owners, developers, builders, PGA pros, turfgrass industry leaders, educators, fellow distributor personnel and countless others call on George and rely on his guidance and more importantly, his friendship.”
For some, Fisher’s legacy was not simply that he helped people do better but that he helped them be better people. Todd Armstrong, an STI territory manager is one. “I turned 50 in July and George Fisher has been as big an influence on my life as anyone,” Armstrong says. “My dad passed away when I was 20 and like a lot of 20-year-olds, I thought I knew everything when I really knew nothing. George kind of took me under his wing and has made me a better person, a better friend and a better father.”
Fisher recruited Armstrong to work for STI in 1992. “I was so flattered and thrilled to get that opportunity and 20 years later I still am,” he says. “The guy is as genuine as anyone I’ve ever known. He can talk to the guy weed-eating the creek bank as easily as he can talk to the owner of the club and everybody else in between. He just genuinely cares.”
Just as Fisher has moved within the industry for a long time, some have moved and made careers and lives along with him. One is Randy Allen, CGCS now with Modern Turf. Allen is a Carolinas GCSA past-president and himself a DSA recipient in 2006. He has known Fisher all the way through and talks of him in the same class as now long-gone Carolinas GCSA legends Bob Hamrick and Jim Spencer.
“Those guys knew how important it was for a vendor to make a guy feel important no matter what budget he had or didn’t have at his club. They always made me feel special and George is the same,” Allen says. “I tell you, the memory of George Fisher and his contribution will be talked about a long time after we’re all gone. Guys, years from now, will talk about George and how he was the man back in the day. I’m tickled to death he’s won this award.”
