Donita Naylor, a reporter and longtime editor at the Providence Journal, called Fiske “the Marlboro Man who could recite poetry.” She also said he set a high standard for excuses on being late to work. “One time he said he was late because his horses and goats had fallen asleep outside and he had to chop their feet out of the ice,” she said. “I could never top that one.”
To his family, his love was deep and his commitment unquestioned. His eldest daughter, Lauren said Mr. Fiske was always there for all his children. She remembers calling her father from Wellesley College to come take her back to Hopkinton because she had decided (temporarily, as it turned out) to quit school to shoe horses professionally. “Within hours my dad was driving his little AMC Gremlin with bits of hay flying out of the windows into the dorm courtyard,” she said. “We headed off to Friendly’s for ice cream and coffee. Dad was there for each of his children up until the day he died. None of us can believe such a big strong man could possibly be gone.” Another daughter, Charlene, shared what became a favorite family story. “It was 1983, winter time. The old chevy's heater running on high. Two girls, 16, myself and my best friend, double dating with a couple of older guys. We made it to the driveway from a night of cruising to nowhere. The minutes were stretched beyond curfew, pushing the envelope as we always did. A break in the action, a sound of a bugle playing “Taps” drifted from the porch. It was my dad. Our call to come in. His special way of preserving our independence and at the same time showing his love. A night that will live in my memory always. Mr. Fiske’s wife of 22 years, Mary McCann, says his love of horses began with a boyhood wish to be a cowboy, and became real when he took riding lessons at Kendall Green stables in Weston, mucking out stalls to earn an hour's riding time. Later, living in Hopkinton, Pepperell, Brookline and Rochester, Fiske always had at least one horse. At 75, he was still “doing the stalls” every day at their small farm in Rochester, McCann said. “No matter what else was going on or how tired he might be, standing out in the corral every evening with Pretty-faced Sam, an aged mare, and Misty, her donkey companion, as they ate their grain was a moment he loved,” McCann said.During his newspaper days, Mr. Fiske logged thousands of miles per year between work in Providence or Framingham, his longtime home in Brookline Village, his sailboat, moored in Mattapoisett, and his mother’s farm in Pepperell listening to books on tape as he drove. He often regaled coworkers with stories about misadventures while sailing, including nearly smashing into the de-activated Bretton Reef light tower in the middle of the night on his first sail into Narragansett Bay, to Wickford. “He was a real gentleman,” said MetroWest Daily News Editor-in-Chief Richard Lodge. “He prized good writing and solid reporting. Mac Fiske was a class act.”MacGregor Fiske was born on April 18, 1934, in Newton, the only child of Richard Eldredge Fiske and Jean (MacGregor) Fiske. His father had a 26-year career with the Associated Press in Boston and New York. His grandfather, Philip Fiske, was editor of the Boston American, a newspaper owned by the Hearst Corp. Mr. Fiske’s great-grandfather, Amos Kidder Fiske, was a fiction and history author, and an editorial writer for The Boston Globe, New York Times and Journal of Commerce, a New York weekly.Besides his wife, Mary, he leaves five children, Richard of New York City; Lauren, wife of David Brooks of West Brookfield; Jean Murray, wife of Stephen Murray of Lakeville; Charlene Fiske, wife of Robert Gato of Thompson, Conn.; and Jules McCann of Jamaica Plain; six grandchildren, Johanna Gassett, wife of Joseph Grover of Sturbridge; Abbigail Brooks of New York City; John Fiske of Thompson, Conn.; Elisabeth, Sean and Julia Murray of Lakeville; and two great-grandchildren, Landon and Oliver Grover. Mr. Fiske was formerly married to Mrs. David Fitzgerald of West Brookfield. His large and loving extended family includes members of the Marshall and Albret families, as well as beloved in-laws in the Estridge, McCann, Skorupa and Wittreich families.A memorial service will be held at The Seamen's Bethel, 15 Johnny Cake Hill, New Bedford, on Wednesday, Nov. 18, at 11 a.m. Burial will be private. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the New Bedford Port Society, 15 Johnny Cake Hill, New Bedford MA 02740.
For those attending the memorial service there is public parking in The Elm Street Garage.