Joyce B. Fisher, 95, of Cazenovia, died on Jan. 22, 2025, at her home surrounded by family.
She was a life-long resident of the Central New York area. She was the only child of Geoffrey M. Brown and Elsie Folsom Brown.
Joyce was born in 1929 in Syracuse and graduated from Fayetteville High School in 1947, serving as the yearbook editor for that year. She then attended and graduated from the Maxwell School of Citizenship at Syracuse University.
While in college, she devoted many years of service to helping the University’s foreign students adjust to their new lives in the USA and she formed relationships with many of them that lasted all her life.
She was a member of Pi Beta Phi sorority. She spent many hours dancing to the big bands of the era at the Hotel Syracuse. Ballroom dancing was one of her passions for the rest of her life, too.
While at Syracuse, she met her future husband, Tom Vickers from Newcastle, England. They were married in 1957.
Joyce was initially employed by the Syracuse Savings Bank and then the Manlius Military School – both places she admired and loved working for.
After her marriage, she became a stay-at-home mother for her two small boys (Geoffrey and David).
After Tom’s unexpected death in 1970, Joyce relied on her parents to help raise her sons until she remarried in 1974 to Robert H. Fisher. They bought a small farm in the town of Nelson where she resided until her death.
Beginning in 1974, she converted her life-long passion of dressage and teaching into a more formal career. Over the next 45 years, she would influence scores of students in equitation and more profoundly, in their lives. Many of these students became life-long friends.
She is survived by her son, Geoffrey and daughter-in law Sarah, and by her son David. She is also survived by her two grandchildren, Evan Vickers of New Hampshire and Andrea (Tyler) Massey of Kentucky.
Calling hours will be 1-3 pm Thursday, Jan. 30, at the Ayer & Zimmer Funeral Home, 38 Sullivan St. Cazenovia.
A private family burial will be in Fayetteville, Cemetery.
In lieu of flowers, people can make a donation in her name to the American Farm Land Trust, the Cherry Valley Carriage Association of Central New York, or the Clear Path for Veterans.
