Ruth Hamilton Fisher, 86, environmental activist

"When you look at the sparkle of the ocean or the beautiful trees in the Pinelands or see the pristine streams, that's Ruth's legacy," Jeff Tittel, New Jersey Sierra Club director, said of the passing of environmental activist Ruth Hamilton Fisher.

"Ruth fought many battles in New Jersey, from incinerators to landfills to pesticide spraying," Tittel wrote in an appreciation.

"She worked hard to stop overdevelopment in Cape May County and to preserve open space."

On Thursday, March 31, Ruth Hamilton Fisher, 86, of South Dennis, founder of the Citizens Association for the Protection of the Environment (CAPE) in Cape May Court House, died at the home of a son, John, in Woodbine.

She founded CAPE in 1976 and had been its only president.

"Ruth was a dedicated environmentalist who worked tirelessly for our clean air and water," Tittel said.

He noted that, among other efforts, "Ruth was influential in the passing of a resolution by the Freeholder Board to oppose commercial whaling in the 1990s.

"She was also a strong opponent against ocean dumping and nuclear energy," Tittel wrote.

"By protecting the environment and clean water," he said, "she helped the tourism industry and the economy."

Born in Ithaca, N.Y., Mrs. Fisher grew up there and, after contracting polio, graduated from Ithaca High School in 1947 and earned a bachelor's in fine arts at Cornell University in 1951.

After working as a mapmaker at the U.S. Geological Survey in Washington, she studied art at the University of Iowa, where she met her husband, Charles, whom she married in 1952.

In the late 1960s, she became the wetlands chair of the Izaak Walton League in Cape May County.

But she left the league to develop her own agenda, which, her son John said, included advocating successfully with others for the New Jersey Wetlands Protection Act of 1970.

In 1973, she formed a group known as the Sun People, leading to what her son said were her two major achievements.

In that year, her organization staged the Peoples Energy Conference 73, which her son said heard from speakers such as the inventor Buckminster Fuller and David Brower, executive director of the Sierra Club from 1952 to 1969.

In 1976, she organized the first Earth Day celebration in Cape May County, at which one of the speakers was the consumer advocate Ralph Nader.

Over the years, she was a constant presence at Cape May County freeholder meetings, where, her son said, "she just badgered them about anything environmental."

In 1996, the Cape May County Advisory Commission on the Status of Women gave her its Alice Stokes Paul Award, named after the late Mount Laurel suffragette.

Besides her son John, she is survived by son Charles, six grandchildren, and two great-grandchildren. Her former husband, Charles, died in 1992 and their son Benjamin died in 1977.

A visitation was set from 11 a.m. to noon, Saturday, April 9, at the Radzieta Funeral Home, Nine Hand Ave., Cape May Court House, with a funeral at noon there. Interment is to be in Union Cemetery in South Dennis.

Donations may be sent to www.geoengineeringwatch.org.

Condolences may be offered to the family at www.radzieta.com.

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