Diane Elaine Fichter (nèe Schryer)
b: 3 June 1946
Married: 23 Aug 1969 First Presbyterian Church, Hillsdale, Michigan
Divorced: 3 June 1985
Lynn Stanton Fichter
b: 24 Apr 1942
Diane had this to say when asked to share her memories in this family history:
I am very fortunate to have been born into a loving family – wonderful Mom and Dad, and two brothers, Norm and Tom.
My early childhood was spent in Detroit with plenty of extended family members close by. Grandma and Grandpa Jackson were both a big part of our lives, as were mother’s brothers, Steve and Duane. My dad’s extended family included his brothers Howard and Alanson, and sister Audrey – all of whom lived nearby and visited often.
My earliest memory was seeing the toy drawer in Grandma and Grandpa Jackson’s house on Duncan Avenue in Detroit when I was about 3 or 4. A flood of warm feelings washes over me as I recall going to Sander’s for lunch with my Grandma and going downtown on the street car to Hudson’s with my mother, to shop.
We moved to Hillsdale when I was eight, and seven years later my Dad died suddenly at the age of 43. At that point, Norm had just graduated from high school and had left to work at Interlochen for the summer. Tom was 12 and I was 15. We buried my dad in Cadillac Memorial Gardens East in one of the plots my parents had purchased as a young couple, newly-married. My dad’s untimely death was a turning point, and very difficult for all of us. But prudent financial planning had left my mom with a fully paid home and no dept.
I enjoyed classical music from the first time I heard it and played piano and then the violin in school orchestra and I was the concert mistress in my junior and senior years. Looking back, the education we received in Hillsdale was outstanding and several teachers made a real difference in my life: Bob Lint, Orchestra; Hattie-Marie Spiteri, English; Mrs. Cook; Latin; and Professor Haymes at Hillsdale College for private violin lessons while I was in high school.
After a year at the University of Michigan School of Music, I transferred to the University of Michigan College of Literature, Science and the Arts, and studied English.
During my junior year I met Lynn, who was to become my now ex-husband. He was the lab instructor for the geology class I was taking and it was a turning point in my life. Two years after our marriage, Sonya was born in Ann Arbor, and I experienced a joy I had not known before. While pregnant with Alex, we moved to Greensboro, North Carolina for a year and to our delight Alex was born. The following year we moved to Harrisonburg Virginia where Lynn became a professor in the Geology Department at James Madison University.
When Sonya and Alex were twelve and ten respectively, Lynn and I divorced. I moved with my children to Ann Arbor, Michigan and began working at the U of M Law Library. I remain there and live by myself in my modest but comfortable home.
I remodeled my kitchen in the fall of 2008 and my mom happily shared the experience with me from her bed in the nursing home. It was a major event for me and my mom thrived on hearing about the plans and choosing colors and materials. Although weakened, she was able to join us for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day dinners during the last weeks of her life. Her eyes sparkled as she saw my complete kitchen for the first time.
She sat in her wheel chair in my living room surrounded by family and I asked her what her most favorite Christmas memory was. She said it was when she was 8 or 9, living in Detroit. Grandma Lucy asked the children on Christmas Eve if they could hear sleigh bells and sure enough, they could. She suggested they follow the sound right up the stairs. Out of the blue, Santa appeared, landing with gifts for everyone amid ho ho hos. Of course Santa was her father but she was completely taken in and just thrilled.
Diane’s love of Russian literature in college led to the way she named her children. She named me after Dostoevsky’s Sonya from Crime and Punishment. Alex is a classic Russian name as well.
My mom and dad were atheists who did not believe in “lying” to their children. No Santa. No Easter Bunny. No God. Diane continues to be an atheist, a belief system she passed on to Alex. I believe in God although I follow no particular faith or religion.
My mom has an excellent recipe for parsnips:
Parsnips
Peel parsnips and cut into wedges
Parboil until parsnips are firm but easily pierced with a fork
Dry
Dredge parsnips in flour
Cook in a fry pan over medium heat in a generous portion of butter
Cook until the vegetable are soft and the outsides are slightly crispy from the combination of flour and butter
Me – Sonya Elaine Schryer Norris (nèe Fichter)
b. 12 April 1972
While I have chosen not to have children, I am very attached to my extended family. This attachment draws me to read long histories detailing the difference between logging and timbering should I come across a golden thread of helpful knowledge about the economic realities of the community of my fourth great grandfather. In the scheme of more recent times, I didn’t realize until I was an adult that not all families are as secure as ours, and I am thankful for that security.
I attended Michigan State University for my Bachelors where I earned degrees in English and Women’s Studies. I was very involved in feminist and women-centered politics, all under the safe umbrella of the Clinton presidency and my own protected circumstances. I still consider myself a very feminist person but realize also that the privileges of my middle class life and family have allowed me the freedom to seek an education and control so many of the events of my life. Personally, I’ve had to fight very few of the struggles that some women at the end of the 20th century face such as poverty, lack of an education, lack of family structure, and lack of the middle class interpersonal skills and work habits so important to the ability to earn a living and hence give yourself the space for “a room of one’s own” – space to be who you want to be in some degree of comfort, not just who you have to be to survive. But I came of age in college, as so many people do, and it shaped how I look at the world. I am grateful for those years and experiences.
I have a Masters Degree in Library and Information Science from Wayne State University. As of the writing of this family history I am employed as the Web site administrator for the Library of Michigan. I am a passionate librarian and very content with my career choices.
I have lived through enough drama to leave me satisfied that I’ve seen the grittier details of life’s emotional ups and downs, and the cost of drama. I am hence healthily wary of it.
I’m married to fellow librarian Scott Jeffrey Norris. We announced our engagement at Aunt Charlotte and Uncle Tom’s Thanksgiving dinner table in 2001. We were married on 24 Aug 2002 in a small family ceremony on the campus of Michigan State University.
Scott is from Milwaukee, Wisconsin. His parents are Grafton Norris II and Enid June Norris (nèe Janda). His parents had four children: Scott Norris (b. 4 Apr 1954) Grafton Norris (b. 11 May 1958 d. 6 April 1999), Karyl (now Richson) (b. 4 Dec 1955) and Mark (b. 4 June 1961 d. 26 May 1980). Scott and Grafton were both born with glaucoma and Scott lost his sight at the age of 15. He works as the Adaptive Technology Coordinator at the Library for the Blind and has his own consulting business as well.
Before working in a library, he owned and operated a mechanic’s garage called Norris Automotive. He is an international athlete who has competed three times in the tandem bicycle division of the Paris-Brest-Paris cycling competition in France. As a young man he pedaled cross-country with his friend Mark Lawton. They went from the Pacific to the Atlantic in two summers, with only what they could carry on their backs. Later in life he trekked in Nepal with this same man.
Scott’s Bachelors degree is from the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, in History, his Masters in Library Science is from Wayne State University, and he has a juris doctor from Thomas Cooley Law School.
Alexander Stanton Fichter
b. 7 Jan 1974
Alex is the second child of Diane and Lynn Fichter. He has one of the greatest senses of humor of anyone I know.
Alex’s Bachelor’s degrees are in Geology and Anthropology from Eastern Michigan University. His nine to five job is as a network administrator at the University of Michigan. A very good job, he admits, but his true love is music. When asked what advice he would give his descendants he said he would ask them for their advice instead.
We were both raised in Virginia and continue to have a deep love of that state and the Shenandoah Valley in particular. One summer Alex participated in a James Madison University archaeological dig at President Madison’s plantation, Montpelier. They excavated slave quarters along with other buildings. He has extremely fond memories of the drive over the Piedmont each week to get to the dig site. His favorite vacation spot is an old farmhouse of a friend deep in the hills of Virginia.
There is a story equally belonging to Silas and Alex, but Alex claims original credit for the idea so I’ll put it here.
Each year on the day after Thanksgiving we have a family feast at a restaurant called Pickle Bill’s outside Cleveland, Ohio. Tom and Norm pick up the tab for the extravaganza as patriarchs of the family. But. One year. Under the direction of Alex and Silas, a coup d’état occurred. They picked up the tab.
The cousins (children of Norm, Diane and Tom) went in on the bill during a carefully orchestrated overthrow of the status quo. Silas and Alex went to the restaurant well ahead of the group and spoke with both the manager and the waitress. They explained that they were soon to be followed by veteran family bill payers who, under no circumstances, were to be allowed to pick up the check. They warned the staff: these veteran family members may insist. They may become angry. But Silas and Alex were to pay for the bill; they submitted credit card information. The coup worked.
The Fichters
Diane married Lynn Stanton Fichter (born 24 April 1943) on 23 Aug 1969 at the First Presbyterian Church in Hillsdale, Michigan. Lynn is a college professor of Geology and Vertebrate Paleontology at James Madison University in Harrisonburg, Virginia. Lynn’s Ph.D is in Paleontology from the University of Michigan. His parents are Milbert Stanton Fichter and Lorly Bessy Fichter (nèe Trog), both children of immigrants.
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