M.C.P. 1967

Michael Fischer arrived in the Bay Area from San Antonio, searching for a career, when he encountered the Sierra Club’s first coffee-table book, This is the American Earth, with photographs by Ansel Adams and poetry by Nancy Newhall. He said to his counselor at Foothill College, “This is what I want to do.” After reading the book, she thoughtfully told Michael, “Get your degree in political science, and think about city planning.” He did both, graduating from Santa Clara University with a B.A. in Political Science and from Berkeley’s Department of City and Regional Planning (DCRP) with a Master in City Planning.

He began his planning career at the local level in different planning capacities for the City of Mountain View, San Mateo County, and San Francisco. As a board member of the Planning and Conservation League, he learned the statewide planning ropes, becoming a leader in the establishment of Proposition 20, the citizen initiative that created the California Coastal Commission.

Michael Fischer dedicated much of his career to protecting and planning for the future of the 1,100 miles of California coast:

• As the first executive director of the Bay Area’s Regional Coastal Commission, he was responsible for producing a coastal plan for the region.
   
• As the second statewide executive director of the California Coastal Commission, he quickly became enmeshed in the national controversy surrounding offshore oil drilling, prevailing in a US Supreme Court case, Exxon v. Fischer. He led the transition from statewide coastal planning to the approval of local coastal plans.
   
• He was a founding leader of the Coastal States Organization, an alliance of state coastal program directors which advocated for enlightened federal policy and funding for state programs.
   
• Years later, he served as executive director of the California Coastal Conservancy, which completed numerous projects under his tenure including the restoration of tidal wetlands at Sonoma Baylands.
   

Between the Coastal Commission jobs, he served as deputy director and chief of policy for Governor Jerry Brown’s Office of Planning and Research. He was the principal author of California’s only adopted statewide plan, An Urban Strategy for California.

As Executive Director of the national Sierra Club, he oversaw its unprecedented growth in membership, initiated the Club’s environmental justice work, and led the Club through its 100th Anniversary and its first capital campaign, which was successful in raising $100,000,000.

Michael brought his full-time career to a close as director of the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation’s environmental grantmaking program.  During those six years, his perspective expanded to an international view, enabling him to provide more than $100,000,000 for locally-based planning and environmental programs all over the world.

In every position he held, the lessons learned at DCRP were influential: Never seek a piecemeal approach to any problem; always seek to integrate, to assemble a comprehensive, collaborative, long-range approach; technical skills are essential but useful only if they are married to strategic, gutsy policy advocacy; teamwork, partnerships, respect for individuals and for diversity. Those were the lessons taught not only in class but in the many examples set by the interpersonal and professional relationships among the students and professors. DCRP provided a lasting base for Michael’s fluid, varied career, always focused on the initial objectives outlined in This is the American Earth.