Indiana University School of Medicine Department of Obstetrics
Passed by the IU Indianapolis Faculty Council at their meeting on September 6, 2005.
Family of Origin
Marilyn is the oldest of five children of Sid and Mary Fisher. Her life-long love of travel may have had its roots in the frequent moves that were a part of her father’s military service. Her growing-up years were spent between her mother’s family home in Monmouth, Illinois and the various postings that were part of her father’s career as a Marine aviator.
Marilyn has talked of her brother and sisters being her best friends; this served them well in the frequent moves of their childhood.
Family of Marriage
Marilyn’s family of marriage includes her husband Michael, and her four children Bridget, Bernadette, Adrian, and Michaela. Her family describes her as the glue; the rock; the only sane one; the person who has held the family together emotionally and kept them close as they became geographically more spread out. Her love of travel carried on and was used as a means of bringing the family together on annual adventures. She instilled and modeled for them the values of non-violence and love. The theme of non-violence runs throughout her life, in her active participation in anti-war demonstrations from her student years to the present decade, and in her daily dealings with her children, her husband, and the people she dealt with in her professional life.
Professional Activities
Prior to her medical education, Marilyn received a Ph.D. in Developmental Psychology from SUNY at Stony Brook, and was a popular psychology teacher, especially in the area of the psychology of women, at St. Catherine’s College in St. Paul, MN for three years.
She attended Eastern Virginia Medical School from 1982-85 and received her M.D. degree in 1985.
From 1985 to 1989 she was a resident in the IUSOM Dept. of Obstetrics and Gynecology. Her daughter Michaela was born during the third year of her residency.
Marilyn has been a faculty member of this department since completing her residency in 1989. She has worked during this time as a generalist obstetrician/gynecologist, and focused professional attention in the care of pediatric and adolescent patients.
She was the Chief of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Wishard Memorial Hospital for the last 8 years.
Her professional persona has been characterized by quiet effectiveness, by consistent dependability, by efficiency and humility.
She was recognized for teaching excellence by the reception of the Trustees’ Teaching Award in the spring of this year.
Those of us who worked with Marilyn will remember her in many ways. Some of the most frequent words to come out are Kind, Nice, and Quiet. In spite of, (or perhaps because of that) she was a very good and effective leader for our Department. One member thought of her as the Mother of the Department.
She was also considered to be a NURTURER of not only everybody, but everything. As I was consulting my colleagues for help here, The subject of the plants in her office came up more than once. Many times when you would go into the Break room to get coffee, there was Marilyn filling up her watering can for the plants.
A year ago, we had a Mother Goose build a nest on the roof just off the 4th floor landing at the Hospital. Marilyn. On several occasions, opened the window on the stairwell and ventured out onto the roof to leave some scraps and some water for the Goose. She was on call on Mother’s day when the event occurred. She sent an e-mail out to all the Faculty with a picture of the 5 little Goslings and a caption of “Happy Mother’s Day”.
The next word used by all of us to describe her is STOIC. One afternoon, she called me up and asked me if I could cover the Women’s visit Center for her for a couple of hours, because she needed to get a chemo treatment at University Hospital. I am told that she went to her Chemo treatments with her Big Black Planner book, her cell phone and a lot of other pieces of work to do while she was getting the treatment.
Community Service
Marilyn embraced the community and culture of Indianapolis Irish dance and St. Thomas Aquinas parish as her primary activities outside her job. In recent years she assumed a leadership role in the local Irish Dance community, having both a personal and organizational impact. She enjoyed giving back to the community as a Eucharistic minister and her involvement in the parish.
In her roles as wife, mother, physician and teacher, Marilyn excelled. She will be sincerely missed by all the lives she touched.