Born in Manhattan in 1918, Eleanor was the daughter of Joseph and Anna (Holland) Donohue. She graduated from the College of Mt. St. Vincent (1939), and Fordham University's School of Social Work (1942). She performed in D.W. Griffith's "Dream Street" as a child actor, as well as in several college productions.
Fischer worked for Catholic Charities and the Catholic Guardian Society in New York City before volunteering for the Red Cross in early 1944. She received intensive training in military protocol and hospital social work and shipped overseas with the 238th Hospital Group in the fall of 1944.
She was a Captain in the Army and had responsibility for the Red Cross unit as the group followed the 7th Army north from Marseille into Belgium and Luxembourg. During the Battle of the Bulge, the field hospital was bombed.
She loved to tell of socializing with Bob Hope, Jerry Colonna, and Ali Khan as World War II in Europe came to an end. She found it difficult to talk about the suffering of the wounded soldiers that she assisted during their convalescence, counseling them about family problems, and helping them to write letters to loved ones at home. She took pride in "liberating" German radios so her patients could listen to Armed Forces Radio while in their hospital beds.
In November 1945, she married Major John J. Fischer, a fighter pilot and former POW in Germany. She accompanied her husband on assignments to Jacksonville, FL, Cape Cod, MA, Washington, DC, and Paris, France, until his retirement from the U.S. Air Force in 1961.
The Fischer family moved to Rockville Centre in 1961. She and her husband were members of the Christian Family Movement (CFM) and long-time activists with the St. Vincent de Paul Society. She was also a Eucharistic minister at St. Agnes Cathedral.
In the late 1960's, she organized the grape boycott in Rockville Centre in support of Cesar Chavez and migrant farm workers. She was a long-time driver of people with cerebral palsy to their sheltered workshop in Roosevelt.
During the 1980's, Fischer rallied her friends and neighbors and her son and son-in-law, who were physicians, in collecting medicines for the diocesan mission in the Dominican Republic. In 1987, she and her husband personally transported seven suitcases full of medicines to the island mission.
Rejuvenating her social work skills through the St. Agnes Parish Service Center, she volunteered, meeting the needs of indigent clients, many of whom were recent immigrants. She was also a sponsor and mentor to participants in the Rite of Christian Initiative for Adults (RCIA).
She was active with the Alumni Association of the College of Mt. St. Vincent, the St. Anthony's Bible Study Group, the St. Agnes Charismatic Prayer Group, the Rosary Altar Society, and the Association for Help of Retarded Children. She took great joy in St. Patrick's Day and frequently joined in the 5th Avenue parade with the Fordham University contingent.
She considered her seven children and their academic and professional successes her greatest accomplishment. Happily married for over 60 years and deeply in love with her husband, she recently said, "I will love him forever, into eternity."
She is survived by her children Eleanor Fischer Quigley of Alexandria, VA, Kathryn Fischer Davis of Mendham, NJ, John Joseph, Jr., of Mendham, NJ, William Francis, PhD, of Framingham, MA, Thomas Aquinas, PhD, of Briarcliff Manor, and Mary Genevieve of Manhattan, 15 grandchildren, her sister Mary Donohue Gormley of Crestwood, NY, and numerous nieces and nephews. She was pre-deceased by her sons, Francis, in 1959 and Joseph C., MD, in 2002, her sister, Kathryn Donohue Horan and her brother, Joseph Charles Donohue.
