Larry Fischer was born in Chicago on September 2, 1937. He received his bachelors and masters degrees in Pharmacy from the University of Chicago and a PhD in Pharmaceutical Chemistry from the University of California, San Francisco. Larry undertook postdoctoral training at St. Mary's Hospital in London. In 1966, he was recruited by Merck & Company, and in 1968, accepted a faculty position at the University of Iowa, Department of Pharmacology. Larry came to Michigan State University in 1985 to direct the Institute of Environmental Toxicology (IET).
During Larry’s nineteen-year tenure and under his leadership, toxicology research and graduate training at Michigan State became recognized nationally and internationally for excellence. Larry was a man of vision. In 1988, as Director of the IET (now the Institute for Integrative Toxicology), he brought together investigators with diverse scientific and engineering backgrounds to establish research teams focused on various aspects of environmental toxicology. Led by Larry, these teams competed successfully for funding by the Superfund Research Program, a program project now in its 30th year. He devoted many hours in the laboratory researching puzzles of toxicology and diabetes. In his laboratory, he trained numerous doctoral and postdoctoral students, many of whom now hold important positions in government and industry. In addition to teaching at the undergraduate, graduate, and professional levels, he served as the Director of the Graduate Training Program in Environmental Toxicology. In this capacity, he successfully completed for a NIEHS Training Grant (T32) at Michigan State, for which he served as the Principal Investigator for fifteen years. During his academic career, he authored over 100 scientific articles, took sabbaticals in Switzerland, Tucson, Arizona, and Sweden, and served on numerous national and regional scientific advisory committees. In addition, he served on several committees in the Society of Toxicology.
Larry loved the outdoors. Walking in the woods and fields with his dog was one of his favorite activities. When he retired in 2004, he left an appreciative faculty and friends to move back to Iowa City with his wife Betsy to be near family. He passed on Tuesday, August 7, 2018, from complications due to dementia. He will be remembered for his open, relaxed, and cheerful demeanor, which was a hallmark of his effectiveness as a leader in building productive, collegial relationships and many friendships.