[1] Fischer was born in Baltimore, Maryland on July 16, 1910,[2] and raised near Lake Montebello in the city's northeast side.
He also served in the United States Coast Guard Reserve during World War II, helping to organize Maryland's Civil Defense program.
[3] He first joined the Baltimore City Public School System administration in 1942 as its director of attendance and child guidance.
[3] While tending to these responsibilities, he finished his postgraduate studies at Teachers College, Columbia University, earning a master's degree in 1949 and a doctorate in school administration in 1951.
A month after the United States Supreme Court's ruling on Brown v. Board of Education in 1954, he met with the city's teachers to announce the desegregation of Baltimore's public schools.