Business & brands / Politics
Max Fisher
1908–2005 · businessman, philanthropist, presidential adviser
Oil businessman who came to Detroit in 1930, built Aurora Gasoline and Speedway, led the city's Jewish community and civic renewal efforts, and gave his name to the Detroit Symphony's music center.
- Born
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania- Died
Franklin, Michigan
aged 96- Birth name
- Max Martin Fisher
- Also known as
- Max M. Fisher
- Detroit years
- 1930–2005
- Field
- Business & brands, Politics
01 / The Detroit story
The Detroit story
Fisher was born in Pittsburgh to Russian Jewish immigrants and grew up in Salem, Ohio. After Ohio State he came to Detroit in 1930 as a 15-dollar-a-week salesman at his father's oil-reclamation business, and in 1932 he started his own company, Aurora Gasoline, which grew into a major Midwestern refiner with the Speedway gas station chain. In later decades he chaired United Brands and invested in real estate with partners including Alfred Taubman and Henry Ford II. For more than forty years he was a central figure in Detroit's civic life, organizing business leaders and investment in the city, and he led Jewish philanthropy locally and nationally, serving as president of the Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Detroit from 1959 to 1964. A major Republican fundraiser, he advised presidents from Eisenhower to George W. Bush on the Middle East. His gift made possible the Max M. and Marjorie S. Fisher Music Center, the Detroit Symphony's home.
Highlights
- Founded Aurora Gasoline (Speedway) in Detroit in 1932
- President of the Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Detroit, 1959–1964
- Adviser on Middle East issues to presidents from Eisenhower to Bush
- Namesake of the Max M. and Marjorie S. Fisher Music Center
- Buried at Clover Hill Park Cemetery, Birmingham
02 / Their Detroit places
Their Detroit places 2
Where they lived, worked, performed and liked to hang out. Closed and demolished places stay here too, because they are part of the city's history.
Memorial · 2003–
Detroit Symphony Orchestra — Orchestra Hall
Home of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, joining historic Orchestra Hall with a new wing and a performing-arts high school; named for Fisher and his wife.
Buried here · 2005
Clover Hill Park Cemetery
Jewish cemetery in Birmingham, Michigan, where Fisher is buried.