Builder brings ‘home’ housing for veterans

The two newest homes in the Bronx are designed for those who once put their lives on the line in defense of our country. And they come with a Riverdale touch.

Last week’s dedication of the two Fisher Houses at the James J. Peters VA Medical Center in Kingsbridge Heights attracted a number of dignitaries, including U.S. Secretary of Veterans Affairs Robert Wilkie. For Kenneth Fisher, the Fisher House Foundation’s chief executive who has built more than 80 “homes away from home” on 25 military installations and more than 30 VA medical centers, these two homes were particularly meaningful.

“Today, we dedicate the first Fisher House in my own backyard, here in the borough of the Bronx, where I actually grew up, went to public school, played stickball, learned how to ride a bike, and got my first beating from my mother,” Fisher told the small dedication ceremony crowd, to laughter. “This one is special because it’s home.”

Fisher, who grew up in Riverdale, is a third-generation partner in his family’s real estate firm, Fisher Brothers. But he says his work with veterans is his real passion. Fisher House, started by Fisher’s uncle Zachary in 1990, builds comfort homes for veterans receiving treatment at VA facilities across the country.

“These families and caregivers don’t need our support, they’ve earned it,” Fisher said. “We as a nation must do a better job to ensure that military and veteran families get the care and support they deserve. Our actions need to speak louder than our words.”

The two new Bronx homes are located on the campus of the Kingsbridge Heights medical center, less than 200 yards from the front door of the medical center. The modern homes with exteriors based on the Tudor-style walk-ups in the surrounding neighborhood have been completed, but they won’t be filled for another month or two, based on referrals from veterans’ social workers.

Each house contains 16 suites, a large modern kitchen, Wi-Fi, a wide-open common area, and a television and telephone in each bedroom. Veterans who will live there will typically be out-of-towners, coming from places more than 50 miles or two hours away.

When everyone gathered two years earlier for the official groundbreaking for Fisher Houses, it was pouring rain. But at the May 22 ribbon cutting, the sky was clear and the temperatures were a balmy 70 degrees.

“Sometimes dreams come true,” said Dr. Erik Langhoff, the medical center’s director. “We stand here on a most beautiful day with two beautiful houses.”

Fisher singled out the architect, Carl Zarrello, for his work on the homes. One day, while walking through the construction site, Fisher realized they couldn’t build the same style of home in the Bronx as they were building elsewhere in the country.

“I looked over and saw (a) six-story, Tudor walk-up across the street,” Fisher recalled. Zarrello took the building as inspiration to create a design that was “uniquely Bronx.”

Wilkie gave the keynote remarks, a past member of both the U.S. Navy Reserves and U.S. Air Force Reserves. He worked with National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice during the George W. Bush administration. Wilkie said that as he made his way from LaGuardia Airport to Kingsbridge Heights, he passed Yankee Stadium. That apparently was enough for him to throw out his prepared remarks so he could speak about Jerry Coleman, Ralph Houk and Yogi Berra — all Yankee greats who once laid down their bats to serve in World War II.

“Seventy-five years ago, in two weeks, Yogi Berra hit the beaches at Normandy,” Wilkie said. Berra was awarded the Purple Heart and several commendations from the Navy for going to the aide of “hundreds of American warriors who fell under the fusillade of German fire.”

Wilkie also spoke of his father, an Army officer during the Vietnam War. In February 1970, Wilkie’s family got word his father was “terribly wounded” during the invasion of Cambodia. There was no Fisher House back then, and because of that, Wilkie didn’t see his father for more than a year. When he finally did return, Wilkie’s towering 6-foot-2 dad weighed just 120 pounds — half of his pre-war weight. America, Wilkie said, turned its back on veterans during that era.

“America had forgotten what it meant to serve,” the Trump Cabinet secretary said. “It is because of places like this, it is because of Fisher House, that America will say ‘never again.’”

U.S. Army Capt. Paul Bucha, who won the Medal of Honor for his actions during the Vietnam War, presented Fisher a plaque depicting the emblems of the four branches of the military, a tradition repeated at each Fisher House opening.

“When we come together, these individual branches disappear,” Bucha said. “All of them combined constitute the family that is served by the Fishers.”