For St. Luke’s member Ron Fisher, an usher at both the 9:45 and 11 AM traditional services, our greatly admired main sanctuary was truly a “family affair”.  Ron’s father Louis and uncle Fred co-owned Fisher Construction Company which built our beautiful sanctuary. In addition, much of the lovely stone and brickwork for the sanctuary was thanks to the master craftsmanship of Louis and Fred’s brothers, Paul and Ed.  Before heading to SMU for college, even Ron’s younger brother Bob worked on this important “family” project, laying brick inside the steeple.  Bob, who later earned a PhD in Biomedical Electrical Engineering, was always especially proud of how straight his brickwork was.  As Ron’s youngest brother Bill was only five when the church was built, he was too young to work on this “family” project. But Bill too became an active, lifelong member of St. Luke’s. His daughter Julie was baptized and later married by Tom Pace.

 

During World War II while working for a construction company headquartered in Minneapolis, Ron’s father Louis had traveled to south Texas for several construction projects for the United States Army. Deciding to make Houston their permanent home, Louis and his older brother Fred formed their construction company in the mid-forties.  Ron’s father and mother Henrietta joined St. Luke’s in 1959. His mother taught Sunday school for over 30 years and received the Church’s Lifetime Achievement Award for her dedicated service. Louis was a lifetime member of the Methodist Hospital Board of Directors.

 

Fisher Construction was a highly regarded, preeminent construction company in the Houston area. Its projects included the library, student center, chapel, and two buildings on the quadrangle at Rice University, numerous buildings on other college campuses, and at NASA, as well as St. John The Divine Church. Although all of these were acclaimed buildings, as a devoted member of St. Luke’s, Ron’s father was especially proud and honored to have built the church’s serene, inspiring place of worship.

 

Ron Fisher’s story as told to Delia Stroud