Carl G. Fisher - Legacy

Legacy

Will Rogers remembered Fisher as a Florida pioneer with these wry words:

"Fisher was the first man to discover that there was sand under the water... that could hold up a real estate sign. He made the dredge the national emblem of Florida."

Howard Kleinburg, an author and Miami Beach historian described Fisher:

"If you look at Fisher's entire life, it's a marathon. It's a race. It was a race to achieve the top of whatever field he was in at the time. Everything he did he went into it with his heart, his soul, his money, and he would not stop until he reached the end. He wanted to be there the quickest and first..."

In 1947, Jane Fisher, his ex-wife (who married him in 1909 and was divorced in 1926), wrote a book about his life. Fabulous Hoosier was published by R.M. McBride and Co. She wrote:

"He was all speed. I don't believe he ever thought in terms of money. He made millions, but they were incidental. He often said, 'I just like to see the dirt fly.'"

In 1971, Carl Graham Fisher was inducted into the Automotive Hall of Fame.

In 1998, PBS produced a program about Fisher titled Mr. Miami Beach a part of the American Experience series.

Carl Fisher's legacies include promotion and distribution of an early form of headlights for motor vehicles in the U.S. auto industry, his early automobile dealership, the Indianapolis 500, and a national system of paved highways in the United States which followed the trends established by the National Auto Trails and the transcontinental east-west Lincoln Highway and the north-south Dixie Highway. He has also a school in Speedway named for him titled Carl G. Fisher Elementary School.

In modern times, Montauk (with the huge Tudor-style hotel he built now a condominium project) remains a small but popular tourist destination. The Miami Beach area has some of the most valuable real estate in the world, home of the revitalized South Beach area with its restored art deco buildings and Fisher Island at the southern tip. And, at Speedway, Indiana, just outside Indianapolis, each Memorial Day, the race cars still pound the famed "brickyard" at the Indianapolis 500.

Today, Fisher's life story may also be regarded as an inspiration and source of hope and resourcefulness for persons with disabilities.