Douglas Murrey Fisher

Douglas Murrey Fisher

Nashville/Franklin - Douglas Murrey Fisher, a retired Nashville lawyer, died April 7, 2019. He was 91 years old. In a busy 57-year legal career he tried hundreds of jury cases to verdict. Doug grew up in Nashville, but for the last 41 years he and his wife Julie lived in his great-grandfather's historic home in downtown Franklin. As a teenager Doug dreamed of becoming a lawyer. He represented Tennessee in the National Student Congress. He attended Boys State, where he ran for governor. After school hours each day he worked as a sports writer for the Nashville Banner during his senior year in high school. He won college tuition money in a nationwide speech contest and gave the class address at his graduation ceremony from West End High School in 1945. He then enlisted in the Navy shortly before the end of World War ll. After military service he earned undergraduate and law degrees at Vanderbilt, where he was a member of Sigma Chi fraternity. There Doug was elected president of the Honor Council, won the Founders Medal in Oratory and was tapped for membership in Omicron Delta Kappa (ODK), a national honorary leadership fraternity. While in law school he was a staff writer for the Nashville Banner for which he also wrote a daily column about goings-on at Vanderbilt. In the decade following his 1952 graduation from law school, Doug worked in political campaigns, served on the Board of Accountancy and was elected president of the Andrew Jackson chapter of Sons of the American Revolution. He served on the first Nashville board of Goodwill Industries and on the board of the Junior Chamber of Commerce, for which he promoted the annual Clinic Bowl. He played golf on Saturdays until the 1960s, when law began to take nearly all of his time. Doug spearheaded construction of an office building for law firms near Nashville's historic courthouse. His firm stayed there more than half a century. In his career as a lawyer, Doug wore many hats, including assistant district attorney for Davidson County, press secretary and Executive Counsel to Governor Frank Clement and legal adviser to Governor Buford Ellington. He co-founded Nashville law firms Clement, Sanford and Fisher and later Howell and Fisher. He served two terms on the board of the Nashville Bar Association. In 2001 the Tennessee Supreme Court gave him a Certificate of Appreciation for his long service on its Advisory Commission on Rules of Civil and Appellate Procedure. The Nashville School of Law named a classroom for him for his decades of service, first as an instructor, and later as a member of its Board of Trustees. In 1979, he was inducted as a Fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers. Nearing retirement, he received the Lifetime Achievement Award of the Tennessee chapter of the American Board of Trial Advocates. Doug is survived by his wife of 41 years, Julie Fisher. His parents were Granville Fisher, chairman of the psychology department at University of Miami, and Roberta Fisher Jordan, a Nashville teacher. He had two sons by a former marriage. He had three half-siblings. A step-daughter, Rachel Robinson, her husband Wiley, and their six children, Fletcher, Eduard, Christian, Sarah Kathryn, Mary Virginia, and Henry lived close-by and enlivened his retirement years. Julie and Doug traveled widely, often with some of his local fraternity brothers and their wives. After retirement Doug enjoyed some of Vanderbilt's Osher Lifelong Learning courses for seniors. He studied American and British history and was a member of a World War ll study club. He liked to dance and jitterbugged into his nineties. Visitation at St. Paul's Episcopal Church, 510 West Main Street, Franklin, Tn. on Tuesday, April 16, starting at noon. A memorial service follows at 3 o'clock.