Architect, now 100, credits long life to a job he enjoys

WASHINGTON -- A 100-year-old architect advises this for those who want to work into old age: find a job you enjoy.

"When you have something you love to do, it keeps you alive," Harold Fisher said Dec. 10 after receiving Green Thumb Inc.'s annual "America's Oldest Worker" award. "I never had dying in my mind at all because I love my work and spent so much time at the office."

Fisher found his calling at 15, when he became an apprentice for an architect in Uniontown, Pa., for $2 a day. Eighty-five years later, he continues to work five days a week designing religious buildings at the firm he owns in a Detroit suburb. "Since it's my company, they can't fire me," Fisher said with a grin.

He established Harold H. Fisher & Associates in 1945 and was chosen to design Westminster Presbyterian Church in Detroit, which remains his favorite project. The church has a signature 10-ton limestone tower and a 300-square-foot, glass-and-gold leaf window depicting Jesus and the Last Supper.

Fisher has designed hundreds of churches around the country. Through his work, he says he has been able to combine his creative energy, faith and family.

He keeps his mind and body in shape by working six to eight hours a day, lifting weights and walking.