Lewis Alvin Fifer

Long-time teacher and administrator Lewis Alvin Fifer passed away on February 17, 2017 in Chesapeake, Virginia. He was born in Three Rivers, Michigan on November 24, 1933. Educator Karen Hildegarde Guck Fifer passed away on March 24, 2017. She was born in Sault Ste. Marie on November 2, 1935.
After graduating from high school at 17, Lewis joined the United States Navy where he served during the Korean Conflict.
Following his honorable discharge, he spent a stint in Hollywood where he worked as an extra in Western films, a fact many of his former students would have loved to have known about the tall, regal-looking English teacher. While attending Western Michigan University, he met Karen Guck and they married in 1958.
After earning his master's degree, Lewis and Karen, along with their two children, left their home state to move to Recife, Brazil. There they taught at the American School of Recife for two years.
Eventually they came full circle, moving to Karen's home town of Sault Ste. Marie in 1968. They began their careers with the Chippewa County School System and stayed in the Soo until retirement. Karen was a middle school math teacher, and Lewis was a system administrator and high school English teacher.
A former student of Lewis', Pam Andrews Hanson, remembers "Mr. Fifer's" class on the utopian novel, taken in the mid-1970s, as one of the best English classes she ever took in either high school or college. She said he introduced critical thinking skills to his classes long before the concept became trendy.
Upon retirement, the couple moved Chattanooga, Tennessee where Lewis continued his love of woodworking. According to Pandora Fifer, his daughter and also a teacher, he was instrumental in repairing the Antique Carousel in Coolidge Park in Tennessee. During this period Karen volunteered as a docent at the Hunter Museum of American Art.
After several more moves, they landed in Hendersonville, North Carolina where Karen continued her love of volunteer work by working extensively with Interfaith Ministries in the clothing division. Lewis continued carving, creating a menagerie of carousel animals. Also an avid bridge player, Lewis collected enough bridge points to become a Life Master.
Shortly before their deaths they relocated to Chesapeake, Virginia to be closer to their daughter, Pandora Fifer, and granddaughter, Wymberley Davis, whom they cherished deeply.
Both were preceded in death by their parents: Arago and Gladys(Sandstrom) Guck and Ethel (Steitler) and Roy Fifer, as well as Lewis' brother Raymond.
They are survived by Pandora Fifer and Wymberley Davis; Taun Fifer Carpenter and her son Mario Cooper, Karen's sister, Gretchen (Guck) Fifer; and three nieces, Julie Fifer and her wife, Sue and their son Elam, Martha (Fifer) and Ed Aufuldish and their daughter Mary Beth, and Mary (Fifer) and Roy Hanna and their two sons, Michael and Phillip.
They will be interred July 25, 2018, at 11 a.m. in Riverside Cemetery in Sault Ste. Marie, MI next to Karen's parents, Arago and Gladys. Arrangements are in the care of Hovie Funeral Home.