Background
He was born in Norwalk and Sandusky, Ohio, respectively, the son of Lawrence Fisher, a builder of carriages and wagons.
Businessman automotive pioneer manufacturer of specific automobile bodies
He was born in Norwalk and Sandusky, Ohio, respectively, the son of Lawrence Fisher, a builder of carriages and wagons.
He was trained as blacksmith and as carriage builder by his father. Charles for a time was a traveling carriage builder.
He worked at the C. R. and J. C. Wilson Carriage Company in Detroit (1901 - 1902), then went to the Chauncey Thomas Company in Boston, but returned to Wilson in 1904, where his older brother, Fred, was superintendent.
At this time foresighted carriage manufacturers were turning to the growing market for automobile bodies. Fred and Charles Fisher were aware of this trend, but they realized that an automobile body had to be more than a carriage body with minor adaptations. It had to be capable of carrying passengers in comfort while withstanding the stresses created by a power-driven vehicle operating at higher speeds than a horse-powered carriage could reach.
This would demand ingenuity in design and high quality in craftsmanship. For this purpose Fred, Charles, and an uncle, Albert Fisher, organized the Fisher Body Company in 1908 to manufacture automobile bodies. The capital was $50, 000, of which $30, 000 was paid in. One of their early customers was the Herreshoff Motor Company, a builder of luxury cars, and through this association Louis Mendelssohn of Herreshoff and his cousin Aaron Mendelson joined the firm, becoming treasurer and secretary and providing additional financing. Meanwhile, Albert Fisher left the firm and became a truck manufacturer.
The success of the Fisher Body Company was due to the fact that its management saw the possibilities in a well-designed, closed automobile body at a time when even luxury automobiles were predominantly touring cars that provided minimal protection from the weather. The brothers had the technical proficiency to design and build closed bodies in attractive styles and with the strength and resiliency required for use in power-driven vehicles.
In 1910 an order from Cadillac for 150 bodies, the first big order for closed car bodies by an American manufacturer, secured Fisher Body's position. At the end of that year the company was reorganized as the Fisher Closed Body Company, to emphasize the specialization.
Growth was rapid, and in 1916 the Fisher Body Corporation was formed with a capitalization of $8 million. Meanwhile, the other brothers were brought into the company. Alfred, who had engineering talent, came to Detroit in 1914.
In a short time he was made chief engineer of Fisher Body, a position he held until he retired in 1945. There was a definite specialization of function among three of the brothers: Charles was the administrator, Fred the design innovator, and Alfred the engineer.
During this period of its growth, Fisher Body followed the example of Henry Ford in seeking profit through increased output and lower unit costs. To this end it pioneered in the development of interchangeable body parts. It was a distinct feat to be able to combine this technique with a level of craftsmanship that made "Body by Fisher" a hallmark of quality. Indeed, the company for some time had a problem because many automobile manufacturers charged prices for closed cars that exceeded what the Fishers believed was justified by the cost of their bodies.
Some consideration was therefore given to making their own cars. It was probably just as well that this step was never taken, given the high rate of attrition in the automobile industry. The skills that made the Fisher brothers brilliantly successful automobile body builders were not necessarily transferable to the making and selling of complete motor vehicles.
In 1919, General Motors bought a 60 percent interest in Fisher for $27. 6 million, $5. 8 million in cash and the rest in five-year notes. This move was part of the General Motors expansion program launched by William C. Durant when, with Du Pont support, he became president of General Motors in 1916. Durant had known the Fishers since their Norwalk days, when they had done work for the Durant-Dort Carriage Company, but that association was probably a minor element in his decision. The Fisher Body Corporation was easily the most attractive of the body-building firms to a man who wanted a self-contained automotive empire, and it was one of the sounder acquisitions Durant made for General Motors.
For the Fishers it was a good bargain. Their company was the world's largest manufacturer of automobile bodies, which was very gratifying so long as they had a market commensurate with their productive capacity. If General Motors had acquired a competing body company or started its own, Fisher might have been in trouble. The only feasible alternative purchaser of Fisher bodies in the quantity the company needed was the Ford Motor Company, and Ford in 1919 was completely committed to the Model T, hardly a promising candidate for "Body by Fisher. "
The deal with General Motors gave the Fishers an assured market. General Motors agreed to buy all its automobile bodies from Fisher for ten years. Management of the Fisher Body Corporation was left in the hands of the Fisher brothers. This arrangement lasted until 1926, when Alfred P. Sloan's reorganization of General Motors had been worked out and was in operation.
As part of the change Charles Fisher had become a vice-president of General Motors in 1924; he withdrew from active management of the Fisher Body Corporation. Two years later, General Motors acquired all the remaining stock of Fisher Body by an exchange of stock, one share of General Motors for one-and-a-half shares of Fisher, and Fisher Body became the Fisher Body Division of General Motors.
There was still Fisher management: Edward F. Fisher as vice-president in charge of production and Alfred as vice-president in charge of engineering. Charles Fisher stayed with General Motors until 1934, when he resigned to become president of the family investment firm, Fisher and Company.
The family fortunes allegedly suffered heavy losses in the 1929 stock market crash but were rebuilt under Charles's management. Fisher and Company had extensive real estate investments in Detroit, including the Fisher and New Center Buildings.
He died in Detroit.
He and his wife were unostentatiously philanthropic, with a particular interest in foundling and orphaned children.
They gave a wing to the Providence Hospital in Detroit for the care of foundling infants and established the Sarah Fisher Home for orphaned children.
Charles's principal hobby was the breeding and running of racehorses, for which he had a thoroughbred stable in Kentucky. Charles Fisher was also a yachting enthusiast and owned several power yachts including the 153 foot "Saramar III" built in 1930 by the Defoe Shipbuilding Company in Bay City, Michigan.
Charles Fisher married Sarah Wilhelmina Kramer; they had five children. Son Charles Jr. became president of the National Bank of Detroit and a director of the Reconstruction Finance Corporation during World War II.