[5] Fletcher moved with his second wife, Bernyce Hassan, and two youngest children to Pasco, Washington, where he took a job with the Hanford Atomic Energy Project.

[10] Numbers of his fellow Republicans were often at odds with the affirmative action policies which Fletcher initiated[11] and supported as the chairman from 1990 to 1993 of the United States Commission on Civil Rights.

As head of the United Negro College Fund, Fletcher was rumored to have coined the famous slogan, "A mind is a terrible thing to waste.

"[12] In point of fact, however, the motto was created by Forest Long, of the advertising agency Young & Rubicam, in partnership with the Ad Council.

[13] Fletcher was a United States Army veteran during World War II and upon his death in 2005 was buried in Arlington National Cemetery.