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36 - THE OLD VIRGILIANWith Old VirgilianShannon Boyd SVC 1996• Murray Fisher(August 28 1945 – March 3 2015)Some thoughts from John Shaw.Murray Fisher died on March 3 2015.His funeral was held at the Church ofthe Holy Spirit in Sandy Bay on 11March 2015.Murray attended St Virgils CollegeBarrack Street from 1953-1964. Murraywas a good student at St Virgil’s,popular and was always fun to bearound. He was an accomplishedfootballer and was at one time referredto by Br Quilligan as, “gentlemanFisher” for his manner of play.He was proud to be an Old Virgilianand remained active in the OldVirgilians Association, serving on theOVA committee and at times coeditingthe OVA newsletter with BobScanlon and Bob Hamilton.He sailed overseas to the UK soonafter leaving school and spent sometime living in London with fellow oldboys, Jerry Langdale and GerardMcGarry, and the popular Mayor ofBrighton, Tony Foster. Some of hisLondon mates travelled frominterstate to attend his funeral.Besides working overseas in Londonand Toronto, Canada, Murray workedfor over 30 years in the TasmanianState Public Service, covering anumber of Departments includingPremier and Cabinet and Treasury,and he was on the staff of a number ofLabour and Liberal Ministers. Duringthe 1970s he was an adviser to the lateMichael Barnard, the Labour Ministerfor Tourism.A highlight of Murray’s career was histime working for Robin Gray, theLiberal Premier of Tasmania duringmost of the 1980s. When thegovernment changed in 1989 Murrayvery nearly scored a job with theincoming Labour Premier, MichaelField. However, according to Murray,the Greens objected to theappointment. When the Liberals werereturned to office during the 1990s,Murray worked for Liberal PremierRay Groom. I can’t think of anyoneelse who has worked on the staff ofMinisters from both politicalpersuasions. So what does all thisbi-partisanship tell us about MurrayFisher? Well I suggest that it not onlytells us how good he was at his job, butalso how much he was liked bypoliticians on both sides of politics.He was seen as a political asset bymany because of the way he was able toengage with all kinds of people atevery level. He had the ability to bringpeople together. He had a greatsaying which I think helped him dothat. He would often say to peoplewhen talking about his political boss“He thinks very highly of you.” It maynot always have been accurate, but itoften helped in difficult situations.Murray was a great raconteur andstoryteller. I have no reason to doubtany of them. There is one that I canJuly 2015 Vol. 23 No. 33