Carol Fraser Fisk, 57; Activist for Aging, Deaf

From: Washington Post, DC - Jan 11, 2004

Carol Fraser Fisk, 57, deputy executive director of the Alexander Graham Bell Association for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing in Washington, died of ovarian cancer Jan. 7 at the Halquist Memorial Inpatient Hospice Center in Arlington. She lived in Falls Church.

Mrs. Fisk, a former U.S. commissioner on aging, joined the Bell Association in 2000 to oversee the renovation of its headquarters in Georgetown.

Earlier, Mrs. Fisk spent about two years as executive director of the American Academy of Audiology in McLean and about a year as vice president of public policy for Volunteers of America, which provides affordable housing, health care and social services through state and local affiliates.

Mrs. Fisk, a Washington area resident since 1972, was born in Brooklyn, N.Y. She graduated from Connecticut College in 1968 and received a master's degree in urban and regional planning from Virginia Tech in 1972.

In the 1970s, she worked for a nonprofit housing corporation as manager of subsidized apartments for elderly residents and as an editor of Aging Network News, a national monthly publication on aging.

She later worked for the Department of Health and Human Services and served as a member of the U.S. delegation to the United Nations World Assembly on Aging in 1982.

President Ronald Reagan appointed her U.S. commissioner on aging in 1984. During her five-year tenure, she administered the office's national programs to provide care to the growing elderly population.

After she helped establish what is now the Assisted Living Federation of America and worked five years as its executive director, she was selected to serve as a delegate to the 1995 White House Conference on Aging.

Her marriage to Alan Schwarte ended in divorce.

Survivors include her husband of 20 years, Craig Fisk of Falls Church; three stepchildren, Tanya Sagadraca of Freehold, N.J., Robin Busch of Sterling and Kevin Fisk of Dale City; her parents, John and Helen Fraser of San Diego; a sister; five grandchildren; and two great-grandchildren.

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