Julie Taylor

1949 - 2021

(News story)
By Mark Zaborney
Blade Staff Writer


Julie Fisher Taylor, for whom family and home were paramount, even as she supported her husband's businesses and volunteered, died Thursday in ProMedica Toledo Hospital. She was 71.

Mrs. Taylor of Perrysburg had multiple myeloma and over time received treatment locally and at the University of Michigan and the Cleveland Clinic.

"Throughout the five years, she had such a positive outlook," said her son, Steve, general manager of the Taylor Automotive Family, founded by her husband, Steve. The group now includes seven dealerships across northwest Ohio.

"I think she did it for her family," her son said. "She had 11 grandkids and she wanted to show them you can get through anything."

Roger Berkowitz, former director of the Toledo Museum of Art who became a close friend, said: "She was both strong in her character and strong in her faith.

"Not long ago, she said, 'I just had the most wonderful life, and I've been so fortunate with my family and friends.' She said, 'If I came back again, I would hope to marry Steve Taylor again,'" Mr. Berkowitz recalled.

She was born Aug. 29, 1949, to Geraldine and Thomas Fisher and grew up in Grosse Pointe, Mich. Her grandfather Charles Fisher was one of the Fisher Brothers - the carriage makers from Norwalk, Ohio, who went to Detroit and formed Fisher Body Co. Their enterprise designed and manufactured the bodies of Cadillac and other automobiles and, in time, became a division of General Motors.

"She was proud of her family and that history," her son said. "What she instilled in myself and sisters was even though she was so privileged, it was important for people to treat people the right way."

Her brother, Tom, went to school with the elder Steve Taylor, who often was invited to take part in Fisher family activities after his father died.

Mrs. Taylor attended Academy of the Sacred Heart and later Michigan State University.

Her husband became a GM factory sales representative. He had assignments in Arizona and Texas, but came to Toledo when requesting a transfer close to Detroit after Mrs. Taylor's mother became ill. He went to work for auto dealer Dave White and, by the late 1970s, became an auto dealer himself. In the late 1980s at his Cadillac dealership on Jefferson Avenue, he used a carriage house as a museum of automotive memorabilia, including artifacts of the Fisher Body Co.

Mrs. Taylor didn't have a formal business role as the dealerships grew, "but she was involved at home," her son said. Even on family vacations, her husband made a point to phone the dealerships and check in.

"There were a lot of long hours. She was so supportive of him," her son said. "She did a great job at home, being supportive, raising the kids."

She played host to company Christmas parties, held at first in the family home and later, when the business and work force expanded, at the Toledo Club. Even then, she learned the names and ages of managers' children so each would get an apt gift.

"She wanted to make it special for the kids of the employees," her son said.

Mrs. Taylor was a supporter of charitable, church, and cultural organizations.

"That was something passed on to her from her family. The Fisher brothers did so much in and around Detroit and did so much of it quietly," her son said.

Mrs. Taylor took part in the the Christ Child Society and was a former chairman of its Clothe-A-Child program to outfit preschoolers, often taking referrals from Toledo's Head Start program. With Hope For Families, a program of Mercy Health St. Vincent Medical Center, she acted as a mentor to young mothers.

She and her husband attended Mass nearly every morning at St. Rose Church in Perrysburg, where they were members, and she was part of the church flower committee.

She was a former board member of the Toledo Community Foundation. She was a supporter of the Toledo Museum of Art and involved in the Apollo Society, which assists the museum in acquiring artwork.

In her philanthropy, "she was very quiet, very generous, and it was very heartfelt the kind of giving she did," Mr. Berkowitz said. "In certain ways, Julie functioned under the radar."

She regarded taking care of family to be her main job, her son said. And for grandchildren on the scene, she happily baked cookies, banana bread, and cinnamon rolls.

Carol Schoen said that her friend of more than 40 years aimed to make home "a welcoming place, an organized place for her family and anyone who would visit.

"She would make you feel comfortable," Mrs. Schoen said. "I never had a sister, but she felt like what it would be like to have a sister. We understood what the other was trying to do or say.

"She loved being a wife and mother," Mrs. Schoen said. "I connected to that too."

Surviving are her husband, Stephen Taylor, whom she married Nov. 28, 1969; daughters Colleen Demczuk and Julie Hungeling; son, Stephen Taylor II; brother, Thomas Fisher, and 11 grandchildren.

Services will be private. Arrangements are by Coyle Funeral Home.

The family suggests tributes to the Christ Child Society; Toledo Museum of Art; Toledo Community Foundation; Mount Vernon Ladies' Association, or the bone marrow transplant center at UM.