Longtime Loop fixture dies
After a battle with stage four renal cell cancer, Donald James “Jim” Fisher, a longtime figure on the John Nesbitt Loop with the Wrightsville Beach Baptist Church water ministries, died in his residence Tuesday, Aug. 12.
Born in Charleston in 1949 and a resident of Wilmington from an early age, Jim Fisher was part of the first group of surfers on Wrightsville Beach and was recently a fixture repairing small engines at Craft American Hardware before he was diagnosed Sept. 3, 2013.
With no warning symptoms, Fisher said he was completely surprised during a December 2013 Lumina News interview with his wife, Tammy Fisher.
“Renal cell cancer is a type of cancer that gives you no symptoms … you don’t get any kind of suspicious things,” Fisher said in December. “It had been growing for about three to five years and I can’t say enough that I never felt a thing.”
Surviving is his wife, Tammy Caton Walters Fisher; stepchildren, Ryan David Walters and Sarah Elizabeth Walters; brother, Onree Theodore “Ted” Fisher Jr. and wife Nancy of San Antonio, Texas; nephews, Ian Onree Fisher and Colt Theodore Fisher; a niece, Morgan Marie Fisher; aunts and uncles, Herbert and Sylvia Fisher, Dr. Emile T. Fisher, Jean Fisher Smith and Max; cousins, Pam Snyder and husband John, Carlton Fisher and wife Julie, Dianna Abbott and husband Craig, Steven Smith, Barbara Adcock and her husband Terry, Anna Fisher, Mason Fisher, Matthew Snyder and Jeremy Snyder.
Jim proudly served in the U.S. Navy during the Vietnam War while he was assigned to the U.S. Naval Station Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. He loved fixing things, surfing, motorcycles, and was an avid NASCAR fan. He was employed at Craft American Hardware for the last eight years as a small engine mechanic.
He always referred to the verse in Matthew 6:1: Be careful not to practice your righteousness in front of others to be seen by them.
During his December interview, Fisher said, “We may not know who they are but we pray for everybody who has gone through this [disease] and whose loved ones have gone through this. Our faith lets us know we are not alone and somebody that reads this may feel so alone and forgotten but I would just like them to know they are not alone.”
