HISTORY OF THE FISHER HOUSE™ PROGRAM

1990 - Pauline Trost, wife of Chief of Naval Operations Admiral Carlisle Trost, presents to Mr. and Mrs. Fisher the need for temporary lodging facilities for families at major military medical centers.

1991 - President George Bush dedicates the Fisher House™ at the National Naval Medical Center, Bethesda, MD on June 24. A second house, at the Forest Glen Annex to Walter Reed Army Medical Center, opens a month later. The Fishers offer a house to the Air Force, and the Secretary of the Air Force asks that the house support Wilford Hall Medical Center in San Antonio, TX. Based on the success of the houses at Bethesda and Walter Reed, the Fishers decide to expand the program beyond the initial gift of one house for each military service.

1992 - Six Fisher Houses™ are opened: Two Air Force houses at Wilford Hall Medical Center, Lackland Air Force Base, TX, and one at Keesler Air Force Base, Biloxi, MS; Army houses at Brooke Army Medical Center, Fort Sam Houston, TX, and Madigan Army Medical Center, Fort Lewis, WA; and a third house for the Navy at the Naval Medical Center, San Diego, CA. The managers of the individual Fisher Houses™ organize the Fisher House™ Managers' Association and hold their first annual Conference in Washington, DC. By the end of the year, there are nine houses in operation.

1993 - Fisher House™ Foundation, Inc. is established as the national not-for-profit organization to assist in the coordination of private support and encourage public support for the Fisher House™ program. Three more houses open, bringing the total number of houses in operation to 12: Eisenhower Army Medical Center, Augusta, GA; Womack Army Medical Center, Fort Bragg, NC; and Fitzsimons Army Medical Center, Denver, CO.

1994 - Fisher House™ Foundation, Inc. opens an operations office in Rockville, MD. Seven more houses are added: Army houses at Tripler Army Medical Center, Honolu, HI, and William Beaumont Army Medical Center, El Paso, TX; Air Force houses at David Grant Medical Center, Travis AFB, CA, Malcolm Grow Medical Center, Andrews Air Force Base, MD, and Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Dayton, OH. The Navy receives a second house at the National Naval Medical Center, Bethesda, MD; and the first Fisher House™ supporting the Department of Veterans Affairs opens at the Stratton VA Medical Center, Albany, NY. There are now 19 houses in operation.

1995 - The Department of Veterans Affairs receives houses at its medical centers in West Palm Beach, FL, and Minneapolis, MN; and second houses supporting the Naval Medical Center, Portsmouth, VA, and Brooke Army Medical Center, San Antonio, TX open. There are now 23 houses in operation.

1996 - Operation of the Fisher House™ in Denver, CO is transferred from the Department of the Army to the Department of Veterans Affairs, following closure of Fitzsimons Army Medical Center. The house now supports families of patients at the Denver VA Medical Center. Walter Reed Army Medical Center, Washington, DC receives a second house. At the close of 1996, there are 24 houses in operation.

1997 - A plan to expand the Fisher House™ program to smaller facilities by building "Fisher Suites" is announced. Two more Fisher Houses™ are designed: An Army house supporting Darnall Army Community Hospital, Fort Hood, TX; and a second house for Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Dayton, OH. By the end of the year, the 24 house network of comfort homes had offered more than a half a million days of lodging to members of the military, veterans, and their families since the program began. More than 6,000 families were guests during the year, bringing the total number of families assisted since 1990 to more than 30,000.

1998 - The Fisher Children's Center at Camp Pendleton, CA, an affiliated project, is dedicated in March. The 25th Fisher House™, supporting Darnall Army Community Hospital, Fort Hood, Texas opens over Memorial Day Weekend. Mr. M. Anthony Fisher, Zachary's nephew and a managing partner of Fisher Brothers, joins the Board of Directors of Fisher House™ Foundation, Inc. as Vice Chairman and Chief Operating Officer. The Fisher House™ Foundation, Inc. Board of Trustees approves a corporate restructuring adding the building of Fisher Houses™ to its corporate purposes (a function formerly carried out by the Zachary and Elizabeth M. Fisher Armed Services Foundation).

1999 - The Fort Hood Fisher House™ is formally dedicated, with trustees M. Anthony Fisher and Charles M. Dubroff turning over the keys to LTG Leon LaPorte, Commander, III Corps and Fort Hood. Program founder and co-chairman Zachary Fisher passes away on June 4, 1999. Arnold Fisher, also a nephew of Zachary, becomes Chairman, President, and Chief Executive Officer of Fisher House™ Foundation, Inc. The Fisher family announces three new projects: Fisher House™ III at Lackland Air Force Base, Texas; a Fisher House™ for the Landstuhl Regional Medical Center, Germany; and a second Fisher House™ for Tripler Army Medical Center in Hawaii. With the redesignation of the Nightingale House at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base as a Fisher House™, the network of Fisher Houses™ is now at 26.

2000 - Kenneth Fisher joins M. Anthony Fisher as Vice Chairmen of Fisher House™ Foundation. Two Fisher Houses™ supporting the Department of Veterans Affairs are approved - one in Cincinnati, Ohio and one in Bay Pines, Florida. A ceremony in Portsmouth, Virginia on June 15th marks the 10th anniversary of the Fisher House™ program. On July 7, 2000, Chairman Arnold Fisher announces that the program has achieved the milestone of having offered one million days of lodging. The first Fisher House™ Legacy Awards are presented to the Surgeons General of the Army, Navy, and Air Force; and the Department of Veterans Affairs Assistant Secretary for Health Affairs. There are groundbreaking ceremonies for the Landstuhl Regional Medical Center Fisher House™ and the Cincinnati Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center Fisher House™, and Fisher House™ III at Lackland Air Force Base, Texas is turned over to the Air Force, making the total number of Fisher Houses™ in the network 27. The total number of families assisted is now more than 40,000.

2001 - Fisher House™ III at Wilford Hall Medical Center, Lackland Air Force Base, Texas is dedicated on March 8th, and the base commander designates the entire block, including Fisher Houses™ I and II and the Admiral Boorda Center, as "Fisher Square." Fisher House™ Foundation, in cooperation with the Defense Commissary Agency, announces the names of 397 recipients of the Scholarships for Military Children Program. Each recipient receives a$1,500 scholarship, funded by commissary business partners. The 28th Fisher House™, and the first built outside the U. S., is dedicated in Landstuhl, Germany, on June 18, 2001. The 29th Fisher House™, built in a partnership with the Veterans Guest House, was dedicated on October 2nd at the VA Medical Center in Cincinnati, Ohio. In response to the terrorist attacks on America on September 11th, and the increasing numbers of military forward deployed to the Middle East and Central Asia, the Foundation announced the building of a second Fisher House™ to support the Landstuhl Regional Medical Center, the only major military medical center in the European theater of operations.

2002 - With VA Secretary Anthony Principi and Congressman Bill Young as participants, Arnold and Audrey Fisher and Ken and Tammy Fisher presided at the dedication and opening of the 30th Fisher House™ - at the Bay Pines, Florida VA Medical Center on July 1st. In its second year, the Scholarships for Military Children Program, co-sponsored by the Defense Commissary Agency and Fisher House™ Foundation, awarded nearly $1,000,000 in grants by providing $1,900 each to 520 recipients. The Foundation also co-sponsored a grants program which awarded $50,000 to 15 different volunteer organizations, recognizing their innovative plans for improving military quality of life. The 31st Fisher House™, a second house on the grounds of the Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany is dedicated on December 4th. With the opening of the new houses, the program accommodates more than 8,500 families during the year.

2003 - In its third year, the Scholarships for Military Children Program attracts a record 6,500 applicants and awards $1,500 grants to 550 students. As the number of service members wounded or injured in Operations Iraqi Freedom and Enduring Freedom increases, many of the houses become the "home-away-from-home" for the families of these heroes. On April 15th, Foundation Vice Chairman Kenneth Fisher rededicates Fisher House™II at the National Naval Medical Center, Bethesda, in memory of fellow Vice Chairman M. Anthony Fisher, who with his wife Anne, was tragically killed in an airplane accident in Massachusetts on April 4th. On May 1st, Arnold Fisher resigns as Chairman so he can replace his late cousin Tony Fisher as Chairman of the Intrepid Museum Foundation. Kenneth Fisher is appointed Chairman of Fisher House™ Foundation. Audrey Fisher accepts the role of "Fisher House™ Ambassador," and begins visiting each Fisher House™ in the network. The 32nd Fisher House™, at Tripler Army Medical Center in Honolulu, Hawaii opens in early November.

2004 - Fisher House™ Foundation partners with "Operation Hero Miles," a program through which the public donates frequent flyer miles to assist service members in Iraq and Afghanistan to return to the U. S. on rest and recuperation or emergency leave. The program is expanded to include free air travel to hospitalized service members for leave or pass from military medical centers, and to their family and friends to permit visits at the medical centers. The six-bedroom apartment complex on Green Street in Portsmouth, Virginia that had been designated as a Fisher House™ is redesignated as the Chisolm Hospitality House. At a ceremony in Honolulu, Hawaii on February 19th, the second Fisher House™ at TriplerArmy Medical Center is dedicated in memory of Tony and Anne Fisher. Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman General Richard B. Myers participates in the April 28th ceremony dedicating the third Fisher House™ at Walter Reed Army Medical Center.

2005 - With President George H. W. Bush offering the keynote address, and with Dr. Michael E. DeBakey in attendance, Fisher House Foundation dedicates the 33rd Fisher House, at the Michael E. DeBakey VA Medical Center in Houston, Texas. With 21 rooms, it is the largest Fisher House ever built. The Foundation approves the construction of six new Fisher Houses, ranging in size from eight to 21 rooms. Each directly supports combat casualties and their families. Four will be built at Army medical centers, and two will be built at VA medical centers. Actor Denzel Washington and his wife Pauletta join the Foundation¹s Board of Trustees. By the end of 2005, "Operation Hero Miles" has distributed more than 4,600 free airline tickets, saving service members and their families nearly $6 million.

2006 - Foundation Executive Director David A. Coker is appointed President, Fisher House Foundation. By March, the Foundation had reached and passed the milestone of having provided more than 5,000 free airline tickets to hospitalized service members and their families. That same month, Chairman Ken Fisher met President and Mrs. Bush in the Oval Office as the Fisher House Foundation representative at a meeting of selected members of ³America Supports You² organizations. The 34th Fisher House, and 8th for the Department of Veterans Affairs, is dedicated on April 19th, at the Palo Alto Health Care System in California. Former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Richard B. Myers, with his wife Mary Jo, join the Foundation¹s Board of Trustees. More than $450,000 is raised at the 3rd Annual Fisher House Golf Classic in Lansdowne, Virginia.

2007 - More than 3,000 guests, including some 300 wounded service members, attend the Brooke Army Medical Center ceremony on January 29th that marked the opening of Fisher Houses number 36 and 37, increasing the capacity at the Center from 15 to 57 families. Fisher House Foundation Chairman Ken Fisher is appointed by President George Bush to the "Commission on Care for America's Returning Wounded Warriors," while Vice Chairman Arnold Fisher serves on the Independent Review Group established by Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates to hear from patients and family members about their experiences with military medical care. On August 6th, the Foundation dedicates the 38th Fisher House, and the 9th at a VA medical center, at the James A. Haley VA Hospital in Tampa, Florida. The Foundation breaks ground on five new Fisher Houses and approves a plan that would increase the number of homes to 58 by the end of 2011.