Former Goochland resident is up for GQ award

Murray Fisher could be the Better Man.

The former Goochland County resident and son of Brookview Farm owners Sandy and Rossie Fisher is one of five finalists in GQ Magazine's 2009 Better Men Better World Search, a contest recognizing accomplishments in charitable work and community involvement.

Fisher, 35, the founder and program director for the Urban Assembly New York Harbor School, was nominated in June by his girlfriend, Emily Neville. From a field of thousands, he has made his way to the list of finalists. Online voting ends today at 5 p.m.

"She did this all without me -- kind of without my permission," he said yesterday with a laugh. "And there is nothing GQ about me."

Fisher, who said he was bothered by the lack of water access for the city's youths and its public schools, established the New York Harbor School six years ago in a land-locked part of Brooklyn. It is devoted to teaching inner-city teens a curriculum of boat-building, sailing and environmental stewardship in addition to standard studies.

Next year, the school will move to its new home on the water, at Governors Island off the tip of Manhattan. The school will be the first nonmilitary tenant of the island, which has been used to guard the harbor since 1790.

Influenced by his upbringing on his parents' organic farm in Goochland, The Collegiate School graduate wanted to find work as an environmentalist after college at Vanderbilt University.

He went to work for Robert F. Kennedy Jr. at Hudson Riverkeeper and later Waterkeeper Alliance, both environmental groups. In four years, he initiated 60 programs, investigated pollution complaints, created a museum and spoke to schools.

"I was given all kinds of responsibility as a 23-year-old," he said. "I became an expert on the Hudson River, a river I didn't know but developed a deep affection for."

In fall 2003, with 125 students, Murray opened the New York Harbor School in the old Bushwick High School.

Most of the students come from the largely black Bushwick neighborhood, where more than 80 percent of the students live below the poverty line and are far below grade level in math and reading.

"There's still so much segregation in public schools," he said. "I wanted to address what I saw as a real inequality in education in this country."

The Harbor School now has 400 students in grades nine through 12 with an average graduation rate of better than 70 percent -- nearly three times the previous Bushwick average. Nearly all the graduates have gone on to college, many with full scholarships.

"What's exciting is when we get a kid that was at risk of not graduating all of a sudden getting a scholarship to study marine science at a prestigious school. That's thrilling because we're creating the next generation of environmentalists and reaching kids who hadn't been reached before," he said.

While Fisher is modest about his accomplishments, he said he would be happy to have the school receive the recognition from the GQ award -- and the $10,000 for a charity, his school.

"I would much prefer that it be for a great teacher here, but this seems to be the role I'm stuck with, beating the drum for this school," he said.

To vote for Murray Fisher in GQ Magazine's 2009 Better Men Better World Search click here.

Contact Wesley P. Hester at (804) 649-6976 or .