Ann Lindenmuth Fisk of Rockport, Massachusetts, died peacefully at home on Thursday, October 8, 2009 after a battle with multiple myeloma.
The daughter and granddaughter of artists, Ann showed an early talent for art and received lessons from her mother, E.B. (Elisabeth Boardman) Warren and her father, Tod Lindenmuth, himself a pupil of Robert Henri. She continued to paint throughout her life, primarily creating watercolors, pen-and-ink drawings, and pictures combining the two media. She also did oil paintings, block prints, and relief carvings. Many of her paintings depict villages or individual buildings, often with whimsical ornamentation. Occasionally her compositions included landscapes, waterfront scenes, and still lifes.
Like her parents, she was a lifelong member of the Rockport Art Association. From 1983 to 1993 she served as the organization’s Executive Director, and was involved in the Rockport Chamber Music Festival’s first seasons, which were held at the Art Association, and in the Town's annual Christmas Pageant. An expert in the earlier generations of artists of Cape Ann, some of whom she recalled from childhood, she became a collector and dealer in the works of many of them.
In the late 1980’s Ann began leading non-instructional painting tours under the name Traveling Paintbrush. She developed a loyal following of amateur and professional painters who subscribed to her trips, knowing that there would be plenty of interesting subject material and good companionship wherever the destination. Over the years she led more than two dozen of these trips, to picturesque areas of Europe, the Mediterranean, the British Isles, and the American Southwest.
It was for her activities in local politics and civic affairs that Ann became best known among the residents of Rockport. She attracted attention, and raised eyebrows, when she won a seat on the selectboard in 1967, an era when women were still a rarity in political office. She had the distinction of being only the second woman in the town’s history to sit on the board. Throughout her nine years of service, she was known for plain-spoken but spirited advocacy of causes she felt were important to the welfare of the town. She was instrumental as well in helping restore and augment the town’s museum collection of paintings by Rockport artists.
One cause Ann espoused early on was environmentally responsible waste disposal. After finding everything from valuable antiques to new clothing being thrown away the town dump, she arranged to have a small shed installed to serve as a “swap shop,” where people could leave unwanted items that were still “perfectly good” and in turn take items they could use. Such sheds soon became standard in local dumps and transfer stations. She was particularly proud of the fact that nearly three decades before recycling became standard for Massachusetts communities, she created and operated a paper recycling program, personally driving to homes and businesses all over town to pick up bundles of paper. Soon after, she expanded the program to include glass and aluminum cans.
Another favorite cause was land conservation. One of her early campaigns was to raise money to purchase Knowlton’s Field, an effort that failed because many townspeople assumed the land could never be developed and was therefore not worth raising money to preserve. A few years later when the land became Rowe Point condominiums she found a more receptive audience for her fundraising drives. She was instrumental in arranging for the town to purchase a piece of land at the top of Pigeon Hill that remains open for the public to enjoy, and in raising funds to purchase a 30-acre parcel at the town's entrance along Nugent’s Stretch.
Ann’s highest profile cause was her intervention on behalf of the Rockport Public Library in 1987, when the Smithsonian Institution sought to deny the library a small portion of the Franz Denghausen estate that Denghausen clearly intended the library to receive. Ann mobilized library supporters to contact the Smithsonian and political figures, and the story soon made headlines coast to coast. Massachusetts Attorney General James Shannon eventually become involved, brokering a settlement in 1990 under which the library prevailed. The $1 million the library received made possible the renovation of the Tarr School building into the library’s current home.
Ann Warren Lindenmuth was born in Newton, Massachusetts on September 12, 1929. Her parents lived and operated a gallery in St. Augustine, Florida during the winters, and she graduated from Ketterlinus High School there in 1947. The family summered in Provincetown until 1940, when her father decided Provincetown had become too touristy and decided to try Rockport instead. They found a small fishing shack on Bearskin Neck and set up a gallery in the front room and rustic living quarters above.
One summer evening during a band concert on Back Beach, she was introduced to Charles Fisk of Cambridge, Massachusetts, whose family also summered in Rockport. “That’s the man I’m going to marry,” she recalled thinking. The couple did marry, on July 2, 1950, and moved to Palo Alto, California, where Charles was planning to pursue a graduate degree in nuclear physics at Stanford University. Ann, having completed three years of college at Florida State University, transferred to Stanford and received her B.A. in Design there in 1951.
A few weeks into the graduate course, Charles decided physics was not for him and changed to taking courses in music. He also began working informally for the local firm that maintained the pipe organs at the university. The couple later moved to Cleveland, Ohio, where both worked for the Holtkamp Organ Company, and then to North Andover, Massachusetts when Charles bought into a partnership in the Andover Organ Company. In 1961, the Fisks, now a family of four, moved back to Rockport and Charles founded C.B. Fisk, Inc., which he eventually built into one of the leading pipe organ firms in the world. The couple divorced in 1977 and Charles died in 1983. Ann remained in Rockport until her death, residing in the home in Pigeon Cove that she and Charles had designed.
Ann Fisk is survived by her brother Peter Lindenmuth of Boston, her son Josiah of Melrose and her daughter Miranda of Rockport, as well as several cousins, nieces, and a nephew. A memorial service was held at St. Mary’s Episcopal Church in Rockport, where she was a lifelong parishioner, on Saturday, October 24 at 1:00 PM. A reception followed at the Rockport Community House. Gifts in her memory may be given to the Visiting Nurse Association, the Rockport Public Library, the Rockport Art Association, or any local conservation organization.
