We reflect on the late-Lynne Fischer who passed on January 5, 2020, an ominous start to a year that turned tragic in so many ways. But today we celebrate her life and acknowledge that the anniversary of her death came on the day we won Georgia. She would have been most happy about that. Last year, we commemorated the 2020 session to Lynne, but given its being a short one and given the omnipresence of the Senate DINOS, 2021 promises to be a more fruitful year and so more appropriately in honor of Lynne’s spirit.
At last year’s Roundhouse, Lynne was honored on the House Chamber floor, a fitting tribute Lynne, as she just loved walking the halls of the Roundhouse and sitting in committee hearings. After her passing, her husband Dan had planned a spring memorial for Lynne, but then Covid happened. I spoke with him this week, asking if we should do a Zoom memorial, but he indicated he would rather wait until later this year when family could come here for the memorial. We will keep you posted. Below is the remembrance we posted last year with offerings from several of those who knew Lynne well. We didn’t post it on January 5, as that day was so full of election news in Georgia that we wanted to wait and give tribute with a post devoted solely to her. We miss you Lynne.
Remembering Lynne Fischer
After a six-month battle with cancer, Lynne Fischer died Sunday morning, January 5, 2020 at 4am. On that day, we lost a truly remarkable activist and, for Roxanne and I and so many others, a valued friend. Today we pay tribute to her spirit, her kindness, and her dogged determination, and we share a little bit about who Lynne was outside her activism.
Lynne was born and raised in Madison, Wisconsin, perhaps explaining where she got her progressive values. She earned her B.A. in Psychology at Lawrence University in Wisconsin and M.A. in Counseling Psychology from Adams State University in Alamosa, Colorado. Before retiring and moving to Santa Fe in 2014, Lynne lived in Durango, Colorado for 20 years, where she had a private therapy practice and worked in leadership development at Lore International Institute and Korn Ferry for a decade.
While in Durango, she met her husband, Dan Fischer, who she married in 2012. From our many conversations sitting in Roundhouse hearing rooms, waiting for something to happen, I know that Dan was the love of her life. While I didn’t know Dan well, from conversation since her passing, it is clear that he feels the same about her.
People who work together, whether as volunteers or as co-workers, often get to know each other very well and are very close, but may not know much about their friends or family and often do not socialize outside the work involved. That was the case with Lynne and Roxanne and I, so in this post we do not want to venture into that aspect of her life. It would be disingenuous and inauthentic. But we knew Lynne very well in her activism.
Lynn was a passionate climate activist, and shortly after moving to Santa Fe, she became a volunteer for Citizens Climate Lobby and also with the Rio Grande chapter of the Sierra Club for many years. In 2016, feeling as if there really wasn’t one “go to” site for climate action information, she founded the New Mexico Climate Action Network and built and managed its website, while Heather Karlson managed the ever-so-informative e-blasts that went out so often, to so many. Lynne was an active volunteer in the Bernie Sanders campaign where Roxanne and I first met Lynne.
In 2017, she reached out to Roxanne and I and said she’d like to join forces with Retake. She assumed responsibility for organizing and managing what we later called the Roundhouse Advocacy Team or Rat Pack, a team that met during the legislative sessions, but met even more frequently between sessions.
Between sessions, she coordinated efforts to develop a statewide survey on bills we might support, recruit more member of the RAT pack, and facilitated the process of narrowing our focus to a slate of bills Retake would support.
During sessions Lynne was at the Roundhouse several times a week and we often sat together in hearings. While she had a career in leadership coaching and in counseling, Lynne was basically a private and shy person, so speaking in a hearing really was not something that came easily to her. But she didn’t let that deter her. She embodied a person who was willing to move beyond her comfort zone. It may not have been something she liked doing, but it was necessary, and so she did it. And did it well and often.
Lynne also served on the Retake Leadership Team and it is here that her contributions were so important. Perhaps the quality that Roxanne and I our leadership appreciated most about Lynne was her ability to see all sides of an issue and of people. Nowhere was this more important than during the 2019 legislative session, when environmental groups parted ways in their positions on the Energy Transition Act. As a longtime Sierra Club volunteer and a member of Sierra Club’s Alliance, she had roots and relationships with Sierra Club and other climate organizations that supported the ETA, a bill Retake opposed strongly.
But while also opposing the bill, Lynne was ceaseless in advocating for Retake to moderate our opposition. In large part, because of Lynne we supported New Energy Economy in meeting with ETA proponents to seek a middle ground. But even once that effort failed, she was ceaseless in stressing the need to remember that on 90% of climate, water, air and land issues, Sierra Club and Retake were aligned, encouraging us to maintain relations, restore bridges.
She has left a void that can’t be filled, but she has also left a legacy to live up to. And she left behind memory of her compassionate and moderating approach to advocacy. We will miss her dearly, but we will not forget her. We are lucky to have known her for these last few precious years. Retake Our Democracy’s efforts at 2020 Legislative Session were dedicated to Lynne Fischer and, as noted above, will be so again this year. We offer our profound sympathy to Dan, her family, and to all who knew Lynne.
In gratitude and sorrow,
Paul & Roxanne
From Heather Karlson, New Mexico Climate Action
Lynne and I met in the spring of 2015 through our shared passion for the health of the environment and the risks to it from climate change. We had long conversations about how to help people become more engaged with the climate crisis and ways to encourage the many environmental groups to come together in collaboration on issues related to climate. In the summer of 2015, I had just started an email newsletter on climate change issues, and Lynne enthusiastically wanted to spread the word in a larger way. We decided to call the effort New Mexico Climate Action, and use the name for both a website that she developed and for my newsletter. She dove into the project with excitement, designing a creative and attractive site that included a blog, recent articles, a calendar, and resources for contacting legislators. Her brother, Chris Zimmerman, supported her work by hosting the website for her at www.newmexicoclimateaction.org.
Since January of 2019, I have been posting the calendar and other items under the “Action” tab on the site, but all other elements of the website as it currently exists are her thoughtful and dedicated work, and will remain online to honor her.
Lynne’s dedication to the environment and a just and peaceful world also showed through her efforts working on the Bernie Sanders campaign in 2016, volunteering with the Rio Grande chapter of the Sierra Club, New Energy Economy, 350NM, the Santa Fe chapter of Citizen’s Climate Lobby, and other environmental groups as well as extensive work with Retake Our Democracy. She committed wholeheartedly to all of these efforts, always with an eye to helping people collaborate on the issues that truly matter.
Lynne was a bright spirit, full of warmth, humor, and hope. I feel honored to have known, worked, played, and laughed with her. I miss her deeply.
Heather Karlson
From Paul Biderman, Citizens Climate Lobby
Lynne enlivened our Citizens’ Climate Lobby group for several years. Her poise and skill particularly stood out when she took on a coordinating role for our fall 2017 statewide conference on climate change, the first our group had undertaken. She brought a calm organizational insight to our efforts to overcome what seemed like endless challenges. The success of the conference owed a great deal to Lynne’s attention to detail and good judgment.
It is hard to imagine that Lynne has left us. Her vivacious spirit and unswerving commitment to social justice lit up every room she entered, every group in which she participated. We will miss her deeply.
Paul Biderman
Categories: Uncategorized
Thank you for remembering Lynne. And the appropriate timing. I have thought about her a lot this year and miss her dearly. It is nice to see that others recognize the inspiration that she was and still feel the great loss.
This is such a meaningful statement about the impact that one person can carry forward on and off the planet.. I did not have the privilege of knowing Lynn, but am encouraged by her example and the lasting gifts she is still giving to worthy activism. Thinking of her family and friends with gratitude.
Thank you for including
this lovely tribute to Lynne who was such a beautiful person. Her impact on many levels was great. And I miss her.
Late yesterday, I was once again pondering the messages within the experience of ‘My Octopus Teacher,’ and went to sleep with that phenomenon in my mind.
Sometime in that sleep, for no conscious reason, Lynne came into my awareness. I had not thought of her for some time, but there she was. I remember asking my conscious mind, what her last name was.
Good for you Lynne. Working the patterns, wherever you are.
Mick Nickel
I have a deep and lasting love for Lynne. We were close after she was given a large breakout meeting to conduct at one of the earlier Retake organizational meetings. She said she just could not do it. I told her that I knew she could and sat next to her to handle the paperwork and logistics. She found that she could do it and do it very well.
We shared the goals and approach of Retake and would often talk about the group process following the meetings. She had a remarkable insight into groups, a deep dedication to the legislative goals and a humane understanding of other people’s perspectives.
Often, as she became ill, she would take up the task resolutely despite intense pain. Finally she needed medical attention elsewhere and went, reluctant to leave the work she had agreed to do, because she could not physically function.
I kept her last voicemail to me for months and I still have her in my email address book, just in case. I miss her and remember her often.