By Post Staff

Joe Fisher, Richmond’s hometown dean of community, neighborhood and civic involvement, celebrated his 80^th birthday with his wife, Maxine Russell Fisher, and more than 350 friends, family and neighbors.

He turned his birthday into a neighborhood expo event with face-painting for the children, jumpers and roller-skating, a mechanical bull, and artistic performance where kids could “picture themselves.”

Joe, the associate publisher of the Richmond Post for the last decade, is known for his iconic photos and promotions featuring individuals and community-based groups who work for and advocate community improvement.

As he celebrated his 80^th birthday from his home, with CJ’s Barbecue and Fish just a few blocks from the Coronado neighborhood’s Nystrom Elementary School, he told of how he attended Richmond High, Contra Costa College and then Moler Barber College.

Born in Jackson, Miss., in 1943, Joe has lived and raised his family in Richmond ever since his parents, Jesse Fisher, born in Lake Village, Ark., and Idell Scott Fisher, born in Lake Charles, La., moved to Richmond in 1944.

Joe credits the guidance of his parents for inspiring him to purchase his first home in the Coronado neighborhood at the tender age of 26. Through the years he has owned three barber shops on Macdonald Avenue. Umoja, his largest shop with 13 chairs, was the largest in the East Bay Area.

Joe Fisher, right, accepts a commendation from Harpreet Sandhu, who works in the office of Congressman John Garamendi. Photo by Don Gosney.

Joe also owned Les and Joe’s clothing store before he managed Smith’s Clothing at 14th and Broadway in downtown Oakland.

Always on the move as an eclectic entrepreneurial sales and marketing businessman he earned his real estate broker’s license and manages Fisher Realty, at 180 Broadway, just a few blocks from Richmond City Hall where he keeps a constant eye on the deliberations of the city officials.

“I am now actively serving the Southside Church of Christ and devoting my time showing our youth how to become first-time homebuyers.

“My wife, Maxine, and I have have been blessed with four children, 13 grandchildren and 18 great-grandchildren,” said Joe.

He is affectionately called Papa Joe by his grand- and great-grandchildren and he has to use all of his diplomatic and political skills to help them feel loved, especially when they ask him if they are his favorite in the presence of each other.

He says, “I just smile and hug them all, because I love them all the same.”

Joe can be reached at 180 Broadway Avenue Ave., Suite A, Rochmond, CA 94804. jlfisher180@yahoo.com, and 510-253-8712.

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