Roger Chisholm Bisher

Born October 6, 1955, Atlanta, Georgia
Died April 17, 2000, Atlanta, Georgia

"This is how I remember my brother..."

OBITUARY: Roger Bisher, 44,entrepreneur, inventor
April 19, 2000
By Kay Powell, Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Any Saturday morning, Roger Bisher of Vinings, the CEO of Prime Power Inc. and Georgia's 1999 small business person of the year, could be found scrounging in Pirkle's scrap metal yard in southwest Atlanta.
The multimillion-dollar company Mr. Bisher founded in 1987 designs, manufactures and services the switch gear used in power emergencies, kicking in the backup power source, said his wife, Addie Mathes. She is the president of Prime Power and shared the U.S. Small Business Administration's state award with her husband. Since he was 15, Mr. Bisher, 44, had scavenging rights for motors and controls in return for repairing the equipment used by Pirkle Inc.
"He's a genius, no question about it," said David Pirkle Sr. of Buford. "You could tell by talking with him, his sincerity and ingenuity. There was nothing that boy couldn't do." Roger Chisholm Bisher died of liver failure Monday at Piedmont Hospital. The body was cremated. The memorial service will be 11 a.m.April 29 at Northwest Presbyterian Church. Cremation Society of the South is in charge of arrangements. Mr. Bisher was the son of Atlanta Journal-Constitution sports columnist Furman Bisher. He had been a consultant and in 1983 started a one-man shop repairing generators.
The Mableton facility today has nine buildings on 40 acres, employs 44 people and the past two years did $22 million in business. The company's clients include Coca-Cola Co., Ford Motor Co. and Home Depot.
"Roger had a reputation in the industry that was just exceptional," said Ms. Mathes. "People trusted him to solve their problems," she said. "He built this company on his reputation." The 1977 Georgia Tech industrial engineering graduate held two patents for programmable load test systems, she said, and had built two diesel engines that broke world speed records at the Bonneville Salt Flats.
Through St. Mark's United Methodist Church in downtown Atlanta, Mr. Bisher, who also was a beekeeper, regularly cooked breakfast for people at a homeless shelter, said his wife.

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