Jack Fischer

Jack Fischer, who spent 20 years at the Mercury News as a local news reporter, investigative writer and visual arts critic, died Feb. 8 at El Camino Hospital in Mountain View after a two-year fight with lung cancer, the Merc reports. He was 59.

As a reporter, he wrote an award-winning 1991 series on guard brutality against inmates at the Santa Clara County Department of Corrections. He did feature stories on such topics as the reopening of San Francisco’s de Young Museum and downtown San Jose’s Green Rice Art Gallery, a small space exhibiting works by local Vietnamese artists.

“I’ve worked with several art critics, including some fairly respected hotshots at the L.A. Times,” said Tony Lioce, a former Mercury News assistant features editor who worked with Fischer, “and, of them all, none would get as excited, touched, moved or thrilled as Jack, whenever he’d find something worthy in a gallery or museum. He saw the task of conveying that pure joy as a sacred trust.” (Photo credit: The Fischer family via the Merc)