TW Fisher: Easygoing, yes, but a hard worker

COEUR d’ALENE — Maybe it’s the casual, care-free attire — the Hawaiian shirt and the summer shorts.

Or maybe it’s the Cheshire cat grin, the subtle sense of humor and the can-do air of confidence.

Whatever the reason, Tom “TW” Fisher is one of North Idaho’s most likable success stories. He has a way of simply and seemingly effortlessly getting things done. Without a white shirt and tie.

Fisher does indeed have a reputation, but also a lengthy record to match.

He directed the circulation departments for the entire Hagadone Corp. chain, newspapers stretching virtually coast to coast, and survived a brutal union strike in the process.

He created and managed a nationally acclaimed brew pub, the first of its kind in Idaho.

And after working for years as a real estate agent, he has simultaneously started another pub in midtown Coeur d’Alene.

His secret is really no secret at all — hard work, which he learned from his father.

Fisher, 65, was born in Coeur d’Alene. His father and uncles were loggers and his mother worked at the U.S. Forest Service tree nursery.

“She planted them and he’d cut them down. It kept them both in business,” Tom said. “We joked about that a lot.”

Coeur d’Alene in the 1950s “was like Mayberry,” he said. He and his two brothers would wake on summer mornings to find a list of chores.

“As soon as that was done we were free to go anywhere that we wanted. We’d get on our bikes and go,” he said. “We’d go to Fernan Lake and fish or go to the beach and swim or just roar around town. The only rule was to be back for dinner.”

And of course, there was the Diamond Cup during a more relaxed, unregulated time.

“There were no rules, no ropes, no nothing,” he said. “I remember walking underneath those boats hanging from the cranes. And we got the buttons. That was a big deal to have the most buttons.”

As a young teen, Fisher decided he wanted a motorcycle. The only stipulation was he had to pay for it. So he found a job moving irrigation pipes for a farmer on the Rathdrum Prairie. He’d leave for work at 4 a.m. on his new trail bike with no license.

“I just stayed on dirt roads and across fields. Then I’d race home for lunch. Then I’d race back again. I was moving about 400 pipes a day,” he said.

He was paid three and a half cents a pipe.

“It sucked. But I got to go as fast as I could twice a day on that motorcycle. That was worth it right there,” he said.

Then there was the high school beach party chapter, in which Fisher served as master of ceremonies.

“We had keggers down there on the dike road and literally thought we were miles from home. Nobody ever came down and bothered us. Bonfires and a couple hundred people. I was usually in charge — getting the kegs and the cups, setting up when and where it was going to be and passing the word,” he said. “It was lots of fun and nobody got hurt.”

Fisher lettered in football at Coeur d’Alene High School and graduated in 1970. He married his high school sweetheart and they had a daughter. He has since remarried.

He then worked a series of jobs before being hired by the Hagadone Corp. in circulation and was immediately sent to Sioux City, Iowa.

From there, he went to a newspaper in Massachusetts, then to Elizabeth City, N.J., where trouble was about to erupt. The newspaper’s union went on strike.

“That was as dangerous as it comes. Those guys don’t mess around back there. I had an armed guard with me the whole time,” he said. “They’d run over paper boxes. They’d run their trucks through the front of little stores that were selling newspapers. It was pretty interesting.”

Fisher returned to Coeur d’Alene where he was promoted to head of circulation for all the Hagadone newspapers nationwide.

In 1987, he decided it was time for a change. He leased a facility across Second Street from the Coeur d’Alene Press and began planning to build a micro-brewery. He researched the science of beer-making and hired a brewmaster from Canada.

When he confronted Duane Hagadone, president of the Hagadone Corp. and Fisher’s employer for 14 years, Hagadone gave his blessing and wished him well in the new endeavor. Hagadone also provided Fisher with six months of severance pay.

“Without that, it never would have gotten off the ground,” he said.

But T.W. Fisher’s brew pub did get off the ground in a big way. It was the place to go in downtown Coeur d’Alene. Fisher doubled the size of the brewery three times. At one point he had 50 distributors in five states.

One of his products was voted best pale ale in America at the Great American Beer Festival.

“It was the ‘Cheers’ of Coeur d’Alene,” he said. “It was absolutely the most fun time. Everybody who was anybody would come in and bring their friends.”

Then burnout set in. Fisher found himself working seven days a week and constantly traveling. After 14 years, he sold the brewery and got into real estate, currently with Coldwell Banker.

But then the pub bug bit him again. About a year ago he bought a building at the corner of Fourth Street and Montana Avenue and began an extensive renovation. The Midtown Pub opened a month ago.

Fisher is still driven by endless energy and his father’s work ethic.

He works the books and tills at the pub for an hour in the morning, then crosses over to real estate, takes an hour at lunch to “meet and greet” at the pub, returns to real estate. then stops in to the pub again to care for customers — many of whom were patrons of T.W. Fisher’s.

The pub is adorned with all kids of memorabilia from Fisher’s past, including chairs from the former Coeur d’Alene Junior High auditorium and a metal Press newspaper box that must date back to the 1970s.

It’s been a long and sometimes difficult road. But Fisher isn’t complaining.

“After working for Hagadone and being transferred to places across the whole country, there’s absolutely nowhere half as nice as Coeur d’Alene. I was fortunate enough to be back here,’ he said. “I’m a happy guy.”