(The following story by Laurence Hammack appeared on the Roanoke Times website on August 10, 2010.)
ROANOKE, Va. — John P. Fishwick, who defined the railroad as much as the railroad defined Roanoke, died Monday at the age of 93.
As president of the Norfolk & Western Railway from 1970 to 1981, Fishwick is perhaps best remembered for negotiating a merger with the Southern Railway to form the Norfolk Southern Corp., one of the nation’s largest railroads.
The son of immigrants, Fishwick also was known for a work ethic so strong that it kept him going into the office daily until noon, up until he fell ill two weeks ago.
“I think the best thing I could tell you about my dad is that he lived the American dream,” said his son, Roanoke lawyer John Fishwick. “He lived it right up to the end.”
Fishwick also was active in civic affairs, leaving his imprint on downtown Roanoke as one of the founders of Center in the Square. He also served as director of the chamber of commerce, the Roanoke Fine Arts Center and the Roanoke Symphony Society.
“Roanoke was very lucky to have him running the largest business in town at the time,” said Granger Macfarlane, a former state senator from Roanoke.
A man of strong convictions, Fishwick was a die-hard Democrat in a business world populated largely by Republicans. His son recounted a story about how Fishwick listened to the John F. Kennedy-Richard Nixon presidential debate on the radio while traveling on a train for business. All of his colleagues thought Nixon had prevailed; Fishwick insisted the winner was Kennedy.
Roanoke banker and businessman Warner Dalhouse recalled listening to Fishwick hold forth at the Shenandoah Club, where the city’s movers and shakers would meet to talk business over lunch.
“A lot of people spend a lot of time trying to figure out how to pay as few taxes as possible,” Dalhouse said. “I remember Jack Fishwick saying: ‘We live in America, and it’s one of the greatest privileges that we could hope for. I don’t mind paying my share of the taxes, and I’m not looking for ingenious ways to pay less.’ ”
As the head of the railroad, Fishwick advocated the promotion of women and minorities, and started a treatment program for employees with drinking problems long before such programs were in vogue.
Despite his progressive views, Fishwick had a keen sense for the bottom line.
“Jack was a man who could see into the future as well as anybody I’ve ever known in terms of economics and business,” Dalhouse said. “He used to agitate me a good bit when he told me that Dominion Bankshares would have to merge.”
But Dalhouse, who headed Dominion before it later merged with First Union, conceded that Fishwick was right in the end.
The product of a working-class family and the Great Depression, Fishwick was always looking for ways to cut costs — a perspective that left him with a dim view of a hunting lodge and resort for railroad executives that came as part of the merger with Southern Railway.
“My attitude at the time was, this is an extravagance,” Fishwick told a reporter for The Roanoke Times.
“He was kind of a no-nonsense chief executive,” Dalhouse said. “He had a sense of humor, but I doubt it was on display very often in the board room of Norfolk and Western.”
A graduate of Roanoke College who earned a law degree from Harvard University, Fishwick joined the railroad as assistant to the general solicitor in 1945 after a stint in the U.S. Navy and worked his way up to the top job.
Those under his supervision recalled a boss who was both demanding and nurturing.
“I came to the railroad because I met Jack on a Saturday morning in his office, smoking a pipe and planning a railroad merger,” said David Goode, who took a job with the railroad in 1962 and later became president of Norfolk Southern.
“That was typical of Jack. He was always thinking about strategy and how to make the right move to strengthen the company.”
As part of the merger between Norfolk & Western and Southern Railway, the railroad’s corporate headquarters moved from Roanoke to Norfolk.
While that was bemoaned by some in the business community, the merger ensured that a railroad that Roanoke grew up around would survive a time when others were facing extinction as deregulation of the industry passed Congress.
“Jack, while he was a son of the Roanoke Valley, had to think about preserving the railroad,” Goode said.
While looking out for the railroad’s best interests, Fishwick remained genuinely concerned about its employees and often made anonymous contributions to those in need, said his wife, Doreen.
“I don’t think there were many men in Roanoke who did the kind of things that he did,” she said.