Volume 12, No. 4 
October 2008

 
 



 
 

Front Page

 
 
Select one of the previous 45 issues.


 
Index 1997-2008

 
TJ Interactive: Translation Journal Blog

 
  Translator Profiles
A Life without Sunday Nights
by Anne Vincent

 
  The Profession
The Bottom Line
by Fire Ant & Worker Bee
 
Whistle-Blowing and Language Professionals: The Case of Postville and Professor Erik Camayd-Freixas
by Eileen B. Hennessy
 
Navigating in a New Era: What Kind of Education and Training for Translators?
by Eileen B. Hennessy
 
In Love with Words
by Monica Scheer

 
From the Editor
by Gabe Bokor

 
  In Memoriam
Henry Fischbach, 1921 - 2008
by Gabe Bokor
 
Dr. Marijan Ante Bošković, 1939 - 2008
by Paula Gordon

 
  Translators Around the World
The Serbo-Croatian Language(s) Today
by Michael Walker

 
  Nuts and Bolts of Translation
O papel das técnicas de tradução no ensino da Tradução Especializada—o caso dos textos turísticos no par de línguas português-alemão
Katrin Herget, Teresa Alegre
 
The Seven Steps
by Danilo Nogueira and Kelli Semolini

 
  Advertising Translation
Skopos in Practice: Building an Appealing Brand Image in the Translation of Soft News
by Zhao Ning

 
  Religious Translation
God's Translators: A Conversation with Ilan Stavans
by Verónica Albin

 
  Literary Translation
How to Face Challenging Symbols: Translating Symbols from Persian to English
by Mahmoud Ordudari
 
The Literary Translator and the Concept of Fidelity: Kirkup's Translation of Camara Laye's L'Enfant noir as a Case Study
by Kolawole, S. O. and Salawu, Adewuni

 
  Translator Education
The Acquisition of Translation Competence through Textual Genre
by V. Montalt Ressurrecció, P. Ezpeleta Piorno, I. García Izquierdo

 
  Translation Theory
The Translators' Role in Clarifying Some Misconceptions
by Ferenc Kovács,
CILT, MA, Dip Trans in Business, Law and ICT,

 
  Translators' Tools
Translators’ Emporium
 
Getting Graphic
by Jost Zetzsche
 
The Comparable Corpus-Based Chinese-English Translation—A Case Study of City Introduction
by Guangsa Jin

 
  Caught in the Web
Web Surfing for Fun and Profit
by Cathy Flick, Ph.D.
 
Translators’ On-Line Resources
by Gabe Bokor
 
Translators’ Best Websites
by Gabe Bokor

 
Translators’ Events

 
Call for Papers and Editorial Policies
  Translation Journal



 

In Memoriam: Henry Fischbach

1921 - 2008

by Gabe Bokor

 

Henry Fischbach



enry Fischbach, co-founder, Charter Member, and Honorary Member of the American Translators Association (ATA) and the last surviving signatory of its Articles of Incorporation, passed away on September 25, 2008.

Born in Vienna, Austria, Henry Fischbach moved to the U.S. with his family at the age of 7, only to return to Europe a few years later. He attended French Lycée in Belgium and, upon moving back to the U.S., earned a degree in Comparative Linguistics and Pre-med Studies from Columbia University. He was involved with scientific and technical translation for over 50 years, including several years with the U.S. Government in its overseas news operations (Foreign Broadcast Control Editor in New York, Assistant Director of News and Feature Service in Italy and Austria under the Department of State).

On his return to the U.S. after World War II, he joined Lewis Bertrand Languages in 1947, where he attained the position of General Manager before he left in 1950 to establish his own translation bureau, The Language Service. Henry served as President and Vice President of ATA, as a Director for over 25 years, as Vice President of the American Foundation for Translation and Interpretation, and as ATA Representative with the Fédération Internationale des Traducteurs (FIT), its Vice President, and Chairman of its Technical and Scientific Translators Committee.

Henry was certified by the ATA for translation from French, German, Spanish, and Portuguese, and was equally competent in Italian and Dutch. He initiated or spearheaded many of the ATA's important programs and undertakings, essentially shaping the Association as it exists today.

Henry was the recipient of ATA's Alexander Gode Medal for service to the profession and the Goldene Ehrennadel for "exceptional merit" from BDÜ (the German Association of Translators and Interpreters). He was a member of the American Chemical Society and the American Medical Writers Association (AMWA), as well as one of the founders and two-term President of the Interlingua Institute.

Henry was a prolific author of articles on medical translation and a frequent moderator of and panelist at sessions on medical and scientific translation. In 1998, he was Guest Editor of Translation and Medicine, Volume X in the ATA Scholarly Monograph Series. His articles were published in the Bulletin of the Medical Library Association, Advances in Chemistry Series, and other professional journals. In the early days of the United Nations, Henry contributed to the UNESCO compendium on sci-tech translations and later to the official discussions preparatory to adoption of the Nairobi Recommendation to promote translator rights and qualifications.

To me personally, Henry was a mentor, role model, and a dear friend. Having moved his office from Hastings-on-Hudson to Poughkeepsie in 1990, we operated our respective businesses independently from each other but in close cooperation, sharing dictionaries and other resources for 15 years. We had the keys to each other's offices, and for many years we shared the same computer LAN and telephone system. While technically we were competitors, we remained close friends and, upon his retirement in 2005, we purchased the assets of his business, including part of his huge library of dictionaries and other reference books going back to 1950. By that time, The Language Service was the oldest translation bureau in the U.S. operated by its original translator owner.

Henry was predeceased by his wife Stefi and is survived by their daughter Monica and her partner Stephanie, son Peter, daughter-in-law Pattawan, and two granddaughters Chalalai and Saranya.


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