THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, October 1, 1995 TAG: 9509290200
SECTION: PORTSMOUTH CURRENTS PAGE: 12 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Cover story
SOURCE: BY REBECCA A. MYERS, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Long : 155 lines
THE PORTSMOUTH NAVAL Medical Center hosted a welcome Tuesday on a scale so grand only the fireworks and red carpet were missing.
The U.S. Atlantic Fleet Band serenaded guests with patriotic tunes.
Top Navy brass, including former hospital commander Rear Adm. William J. McDaniel, showed up in full military regalia.
Flags representing every state in the union lined each side of one street, while dozens of sailors in dress whites stood at attention as a motorcade approached.
Among the contingent of security vehicles, motorcycle officers and unmarked police cars, three shiny black limousines slowed to a halt.
It was the kind of pomp and circumstance typically reserved for heads of state.
But Bill and Hillary Clinton weren't the special couple being hailed on this day.
The guests of honor were Zachary and Elizabeth Fisher, benefactors of the Naval Hospital's newest Fisher House.
The Fishers, an affluent New York couple, have spent the last five years building guest homes on military medical bases throughout the country for relatives of hospital-bound service members.
Families pay a nominal fee - $10 a night at the Portsmouth home - and may stay as few as three days but usually not more than 30. Exceptions are made on a case-by-case basis.
Tuesday's dedication ceremony at Portsmouth Naval Hospital marked the 23rd Fisher House built since 1990. The seven-bedroom home opened its doors to guests three months earlier, on June 21. It has been a comfort zone for about 80 families so far.
Ellan Dodson, the mother of a 22-year-old Coast Guardsman recently diagnosed with cancer, said the Fisher House has offered ``a respite.''
``I think it's been very important to Jeff's recovery psychologically,'' said Dodson, who lives in Blacksburg but has been at the Fisher House since August with her son, an outpatient undergoing skin grafts and radiation therapy.
Being able to prepare healthy meals for her son and being within walking distance of the hospital for his daily treatments has ``been the kind of experience that Jeff really needed,'' she said.
The 5,100-square-foot, two-story brick home contains two suites downstairs, each accommodating a family of six, and five spacious bedrooms upstairs. All bedrooms contain a full-sized bath, while roll-away beds and cribs make it possible for larger families to stay in a single bedroom together.
Almost every room of the house is filled with traditional furniture and wooden armoires, each containing a TV. A brass chandelier graces the top of the stairs. The dining room has a hardwood floor and four round tables with pedestal legs and Duncan Phyfe feet.
It's a home that nicely blends comfort with elegance.
Guests share a common kitchen, laundry room, dining room and den - complete with TV, VCR, videos, books and games.
``They love it,'' said Loretta Loveless, the hospital's housing manager, of the shared amenities.
``They love it because everybody's there and there's somebody to talk to. It keeps them from feeling like they're all alone. It's like a support group when someone other than hospital staff can ask you questions and talk to you and see how you're doing.''
Zachary Fisher, 85, is a New York City builder who shares with his brother Lawrence a fortune estimated at ``$1 billion or more,'' according to the Oct. 17, 1994, issue of Forbes magazine.
At age 16, Fisher left high school to help his father and older brothers lay brick. As a young man, Fisher tore cartilage in one of his knees after jumping onto a scaffold with a load of bricks.
Because of his bum knee, Fisher was never able to serve in the armed forces. Fisher's wife, however, entertained thousands of troops while in the USO during World War II. So the military has always held a special place in the Fishers' hearts.
``After my career in the building industry, I have been able to devote my time and energy to serve you special people,'' Fisher told the audience at the dedication ceremony.
``When service members are hospitalized with life-threatening conditions at base hospitals scattered around the country, their families find it difficult if not impossible to afford to move close to them,'' he said.
``And Elizabeth and I thought that it was important to supply comfort houses near medical facilities at these military bases.''
A year before the first Fisher House was built in 1990 at the Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, Md., Portsmouth had its own hospitality quarters, called the Chisholm House, for families of patients at the Naval Hospital.
The idea was conceived in January 1984 by a group from St. John's Episcopal Church, who wanted to serve the hospital in which their first rector, the Rev. James Chisholm, had died.
After five years of fund raising, the group was able to put a down payment on five of six condominium units on Green Street, less than two blocks from the hospital. They received their first guests in April 1989.
But soon the group ran into financial difficulty. Expenses exceeded their monthly budget by about $2,500, ``and it didn't take a rocket scientist to figure out we wouldn't be around much longer if we didn't do something,'' said Mary Johnson, who proposed the idea.
Enter Zachary and Elizabeth Fisher.
The couple came up with the $398,000 to pay off the mortgages on all six units, plus furnish the apartments comfortably. In June 1990, the Chisholm House was renamed the Zachary and Elizabeth Fisher House apartments.
At Tuesday's dedication ceremony, Fisher thanked the admiral who made it possible for him to buy the mortgage for Portsmouth's first Fisher House.
``Thank you, Admiral, for doing that for me,'' he said graciously.
Guests of Fisher House apartments pay $15 a night for two bedrooms, a bath and a half, a living/dining room combination, a full kitchen and a washer and dryer.
In six years, the apartments have accommodated hundreds of families of patients, as well as outpatients undergoing prolonged therapy.
``We do not have the common kitchen and common dining room, which we understand is really part of the healing of the families,'' said Johnson, executive director of Fisher House I, as the apartments are called.
``In our apartments, they can mingle if they want to, but we've had several people that I've personally talked to who are undergoing radiation . . . and I know they just don't feel like socializing with other people sometimes,'' she said.
Except for the Fisher House apartments, all Fisher Houses have the same basic design and are in 12 states, as well as the District of Columbia.
After the houses are constructed - at no charge by Rosen Associates Management Corp. in Jericho, N.Y. - and completely furnished by the Fishers, they are donated to the military installation on which they were built. Each base then maintains the house through donations, appropriations or nominal charges.
``Each Fisher House is run differently,'' said Loveless, the housing manager.
``Some of them are totally non-profit. I am non-profit in a sense. I'm half non-profit and half appropriated. The hospital actually pays for the maintenance, the utilities, my salary and my housekeeper's salary,'' she said.
Fisher House apartments, on the other hand, don't cost the government anything, said Johnson, the executive director.
``We do everything,'' she said. ``We're privately owned and operated through the Chisholm Foundation.''
With the new Fisher House on base, Johnson is hoping that her apartments are not forgotten.
``I think we have a lot harder row to hoe because we don't have the resources of the United States Navy behind us as these others do,'' she said.
``My only concern is that we might just get lost in all the glory of the new Fisher House . . .
``But we're still here.'' ILLUSTRATION: Staff photos by MARK MITCHELL
Zachary Fisher's foundation built the Fisher House.[color cover
photo]
Loretta Loveless, manager of the Fisher House at Portsmouth Naval
Hospital, shows one of the guest rooms.
A plaque on the wall of the new Fisher House at Portsmouth Naval
Hospital honors its benefactors, Elizabeth and Zachary Fisher.
by CNB