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Personal Information for Wikipedian Vaoverland:

File:5-2-2008 Mullens-0013 - MDF cropped.jpg

Wikipedian Vaoverland, aka Mark Fisher, taken May 3, 2008 at Friends of the Virginian Railway at Milepost 2008 event in West Virginia

Near my home, Skiffe's Creek forms the border of James City County and the City of Newport News. It is a tributary of the James River

An Anheuser-Busch owned Clydesdale grazes nearby.

My user name Vaoverland derives from Virginia Overland Transportation, a now-defunct bus company based in Richmond, Virginia which I helped found and was involved as a part-owner and in management between 1973 and 2004.

My given name is Mark Fisher. While I was born elsewhere, I have been living in Virginia for the past 50 years, most of that time in the Richmond area. My career has been mostly in bus transportation, and includes many types of public service transportation of passengers, such as school bus services, commuter service, paratransit, charters, and so forth. Basically, I enjoy almost anything bus-related.

After 2004, I moved with 2 disabled family members to Grove, a small community which is still somewhat rural in James City County in the Virginia Peninsula sub-region of the Hampton Roads region. Located about 7 miles southeast of Colonial Williamsburg and 3 miles west of Lee Hall, nearby the CSX trains loaded with West Virginia bituminous coal still roll east on Collis P. Huntington's former C&O tracks on their way to the coal piers about 35 miles east at Newport News.

The Grove Community and nearby Carter's Grove Plantation on the James River are situated on land which was originally part of Martin's Hundred, first settled by English colonists around 1620. Studying maps, I came to the realization that Grove is located in almost the exact geographic center of the Historic Triangle of Colonial Virginia, which consists of Jamestown, Williamsburg, and Yorktown.

Around here, you cannot go far without coming upon something both historic and interesting. Among my favorite rides is the bucolic Colonial Parkway, which is nearby and offers beautiful views of wildlife and both the James and York Rivers, and connects with the Jamestown Ferry, crossing to Scotland Wharf in Surry County. Both the Colonial Parkway and the Jamestown Ferry are a shunpiker's delight: no tolls or fees! For those seeking more active entertainment, we are only slightly more than a stone's throw from both the award-winning Busch Gardens Europe theme Park and Water Country USA, one of the country's largest water parks.

A major activity in my life now is working on Wikipedia. Among over 4 million registered user accounts on the English Wikipedia, there are less than 1,000 active administrators. In addition to my duties as an administrator, I work primarily with Virginia and/or transportation-related articles, especially historical aspects. I have lost close family members to prostate cancer, MAC Disease, and Alzheimer's Disease, so these are also areas of Wikipedia close to my heart where I contribute and monitor.

It is very pleasurable to learn more about things of interest to me and help share through Wikipedia as I do so. I am a night owl, and work on Wikipedia mostly from home, and occasionally, from terminals at our excellent local library. I try to reply promptly to requests from readers and fellow Wikipedians which are left on my WP Talk page at User_talk:Vaoverland.

The following sections provide more information about me. Please refer to my main WP user page at User:Vaoverland and my more detailed contributions page at User:Vaoverland/Contributions for more Wikipedia-related details.

Updated Mark in Historic Triangle of Virginia (talk) 02:21, 14 July 2008 (UTC)

Youth, education, activities

I was born in Chicago, Illinois, the railroad capital of the United States during the Korean War. Since I was very small, I've always loved and been fascinated by transportation vehicles, including trains, streetcars, interurbans, trolley-buses, school buses, motorcoaches and all other types of buses, and automobiles.

I am old enough to recall the streetcars and electric trolley-buses in Chicago. I recall watching in awe the diesel-electric-powered Zephyr streamliner passenger trains, as well as the groups of steam locomotives headed to scrap on the 3 track main line "racetrack" of Burlington Railroad between Aurora and Chicago. The frequent trains passed within a half block of our home in Downers Grove, a western suburb, and former location of a CB&Q roundhouse.

Shortly after relocating to Virginia in the very hot summer of 1958 (when I was 7 years old), our family began driving on weekend trips to some of the many historic sites and I thus became very interested in the history and geography of the Old Dominion. Among just a few of my earlier memories are our visits to such places as Monticello, Jamestown, Lexington, Natural Bridge, and the many units of the Richmond National Battlefield Park and its neighbor to the south, Petersburg National Battlefield Park. At the latter, I can recall seeing The Crater as well as some other sites such as Fort Sedgwick, also known as "Fort Hell", which have since been lost to development. (Some extant Civil War sites are still threatened by development, although much has been preserved there, and elsewhere in Virginia). Of course, the crown jewel then and now is Colonial Williamsburg where the extensive restoration and recreation of the entire colonial town facilitates envisioning the atmosphere and embracing the ideals of the 1770s-era patriots, many of whom helped mold the beginnings of the democracy we enjoy in Virginia and the United States, even as it is still a work-in-progress.

I attended public schools in Illinois, Kentucky, and Virginia. I believe that phonics training in grades K-1 in Illinois and Kentucky combined with a lot of attention from my Mom (a former school teacher) to help me become a good reader early-on, an activity which I still enjoy a great deal. I was a hyperactive child and only a mediocre pupil in the Chesterfield County Public Schools after we moved to Virginia. My folks learned keeping me busy helped me stay out of trouble (usually). I loved maps and was often our "official navigator" on family outings and our longer trips to visit relatives in other states. I recall the early construction which seemed to be everywhere as the Interstate Highway System began to replace much of the U.S. Highway system, as well as the inevitable "detours" which added time, miles, and variety to our travels. My Dad was confounded by such disruptions of our carefully laid plans, while my Mom saw each diversion as an adventure. Such contrast in perspectives was classic in their partnership, and seemed to help them find a wonderful balance in their marriage, which lasted for over 50 years.

I was active in my church youth groups and choirs, and in the Boy Scouts troop sponsored by our church, where I earned the God and Country Award and achieved the rank of Life Scout. During scouting, I first saw submarines and aircraft carriers, touring these and other ships at the massive Naval Station Norfolk at Sewell's Point on Hampton Roads. During such trips, I got to see the wonder of the then-new Hampton Roads Bridge-Tunnel, first of this design, which was almost as fascinating to me as the Navy base.

As soon as I was old enough, I became a bicycle newspaper carrier for the former afternoon Richmond Newsleader, where I won a number of sales awards and was named "Newspaperboy of the Year" in 1965. At 16, with my savings and some funds from my grandmother, I bought my first car, and I took on a massive suburban motor route as a newspaper carrier for the morning Richmond Times-Dispatch, rising each morning at 3 AM to face a mountain of newspaper bundles and miles of driving before high school hours, where I was then known to fall asleep at times. A night owl even back then, as I delivered the news, I usually listened to WRVA, our clear channel AM station. While listening to the all-night Lou Dean Show, I recall first learning the of the murder of Dr. Martin Luther King and the riots which followed, closely followed by the assassination of Robert F. Kennedy during that terrible spring of 1968. Combined with the Vietnam War, the draft, and the Cold War, it seemed to be a very troubled time for our country and the world.

A happier memory is that I had become licensed as a school bus driver during my junior year of high school I participated in Junior Achievement and was a Distributive Education (DE) student during my senior year at Huguenot High School (1968-69). At that time, a DE student worked a job which is coordinated with school. Mine was working with a small independent (private) school helping manage a small fleet of automobiles, minibuses and school buses, which as it turned out, began my career path with buses and school transportation.

After high school graduation, while attending community college, during the following two years I worked for Henrico County Public Schools and Richmond City Public Schools (local public school divisions). Because of what they saw as exceptional ability to learn and negotiate routes and deal with contingencies, I was given many different tasks for each school division, rather working with a regular daily route and bus.

Working for public school division and part-time consulting

That is me with those stylish colored-pocket cords with a crew of friends, all of us moonlighting school bus drivers. We were taking a break on a Saturday afternoon at Hawk's Nest, West Virginia while moving new buses from Mitchell, Indiana to Hampton, Virginia on weekends in 1973-1974.

During the 1970-71 school year, while still a school bus driver for Richmond Public Schools (RPS), I was selected to do special assignments for the Superintendent of Schools' office to accumulate information and statistics the legal team needed during a school desegregation lawsuit, Bradley v. Richmond School Board. In April 1971, Federal District Judge Robert R. Mehrige, Jr., ordered an extensive citywide desegregation busing program. Subsequently, as work was undertaken to implement the plan, I was professionally trained in bus routing logistics by a team of professional transit consultants from ATE Transit Management Company of Cincinnati, Ohio (now part of FirstGroup) hired by the school system to plan the new system.

As the new plan was implemented in the fall of 1971, and the city school bus operation tripled in size, I was in the right place at the right time, so to speak, and became a full-time staff member in pupil transportation, the youngest in Virginia at age 20. I stayed with the Richmond school system for 4 more years, first as an area field bus supervisor for two years and then as promoted to coordinating city-wide daily bus operations from the central office for 2 more years. It was a fantastic career development, greatly aided by school administrators who valued my abilities and tolerated my youth and inexperience while mentoring me.

In 1973, my parents and I began a small business which became Virginia Overland. We didn't begin with plans to have our company grow to the size it did. It began as a strictly part-time endeavor, doing school transportation consulting and management work for several small, independent schools and delivering new school buses from Indiana to Virginia for a Carpenter bus body dealer. At that time, I was employed with the Richmond Public Schools, my father was working in the Controller's Office at the headquarters of Reynolds Metals Company in Richmond, and my mother was employed by a small independent school working with a kindergarten program.

However, our school transportation consulting and management business seemed to fill a need in the community, and despite the fact that the three of us were each employed elsewhere, it kept growing as customers talked to each other and additional ones sought us out. By the summer of 1975, we found it necessary to beginning hiring additional people to help out. That fall, as we began operating a coordinated school bus system for 5 independent schools in the Richmond area, I reluctantly left the city school system and the transportation staff to work in the private-sector full-time.

Virginia Overland Transportation

Ruth, Marvin and Mark Fisher (top to bottom) founders of Virginia Overland Transportation, in 1987, Richmond, Virginia

Mark Fisher poses at an uncluttered desk (borrowed) in 1993 photo

A Virginia Overland GM Buffalo bus motorcoach VO-72 on Monument Avenue in Richmond, Virginia in 1982

Bus 365 was a 1988 Navistar International school bus with a Wayne Lifeguard 71 passenger body in Richmond, Virginia in 1999

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A Volvo articulated bus in contract service for Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, Virginia, operated by Virginia Overland Transportation in 2003

At its largest, in the mid-1980s, Virginia Overland Transportation (including subsidiaries) employed 200 persons, and was operating approximately 150 school buses, minibuses, transit buses and motorcoaches with garage-terminal facilities in three central Virginia cities. New and used bus sales averaged 100 per year over 30 years, with a peak sales year of 450 units, also in the mid-1980s. Business conditions and family health considerations each contributed to downsizing and eventually closing the business. But, we certainly had an interesting ride.

Longevity and profitability are surely important measures of business success, and our results were mixed at best. However, by another important criteria, we did extremely well. Despite the risks delivering literally millions of passengers rides, we never had a fatal accident. I have been told often by experts in the field of bus safety that, in this regard, we substantially defied the statistical odds of such a catastrophe. Such tragedies had occurred earlier to others who had led companies which we acquired, and happened to competitors and several self-operating school divisions during the years we operated. (Although not involved, several of us had the sad experience of working with some people close to the tragedy at Carrollton Kentucky in 1988 which killed 27 and injured 34 more).

In contemplating Virginia Overland, whether one credits God, fate, luck, other factors, etc., to sparing us from even a single fatality over a 30 year period, we strongly felt it was largely attributed to a tremendous commitment to safety by the drivers and mechanics, as well as those of us who worked to support them.

In addition to that remarkable safety record, the fact is that we did a lot of good work and served many worthy clients, delivering dependable innovative services within budget limitations. We also did a lot public service work, whether we were properly compensated or not. And, we also managed to still have a lot of fun, at least most of the time.

Early years

Virginia Overland Transportation was actually formed in 1973, but the name was not adopted until August of 1975 as we changed from consulting and management to doing a lot more. 1975 and 1976 turned out to be watershed years for our small company as it turned into both a small bus operating company and dealership. Within 10 years, to our own amazement, we had grown to be the second largest school bus contractor in Virginia, as well as handling franchises for new bus sales, parts and service for products of four national manufacturers.

In September, 1975, we began operating school buses with a fleet of 10 school buses, all lease-purchased by us from the schools we served. By combining routes for five independent schools in the southwest quadrant of the metropolitan area into a single transportation system, we achieved significant efficiencies over separate operations. Highly-motivated by the savings, the administrators of the schools worked hard to coordinate operating hours and schedules and things like disciplinary policies to make the system work, and it did. Within several months, other independent schools in the area were requesting similar services. We added 3 more schools in the West End of Richmond at mid-term, and six more in the North side and East End areas the following fall. By the start of our second school year, the original 10 school bus operation had grown to 30 units, with about 2/3 lease-purchased from the schools we were serving.

In addition to the growth of the school bus services, in the fall of 1975, we began to help represent Wayne Corporation in Virginia after a long-term former dealership gave up the territory to change its business plan. Wayne had long been a well-known premium product in Virginia, but several years of winding down services by the former dealership had resulted in some overdue customer relations work to be done in the school divisions around the state. This was our first task with Wayne, which we undertook with very good factory support, and I traveled around the state with a field service team as we "mended fences."

In March, 1976, we acquired a small suburban transit company based in Bon Air which was operating very small fleet of school buses, transit buses and intercity motorcoaches. This acquisition included r first repair garage. Meanwhile, our work with Wayne Corporation had please the officials there and, with our company now operating a bus repair garage, we were offered and accepted their franchised dealership for full-sized school buses, as well as the Busette and commercial (non-yellow) product lines.

Passenger services

In the bus services area, with a remarkable team of bus enthusiasts as employees over the years, my parents and I acquired a number of older small public service companies, some with roots in interurban streetcar operations in the early 20th century in the Richmond-Petersburg region of Virginia. In several instances, retiring owners were glad to provide both advice and financing to us as we continued their business activities. Over the years, we operated school buses, transit buses, and motorcoaches with primarily school transportation operations (elementary, secondary and university) in Richmond, Petersburg, and Hopewell in Central Virginia, Hampton and Newport News on the Virginia Peninsula, and Norfolk, Virginia Beach, Chesapeake, and Portsmouth in South Hampton Roads at one time or another. We also had a small operation for a parochial school in Northern Virginia for several years.

Our work included both government-operated and contract bus transportation, almost entirely intrastate within in Virginia, including the home-to-school yellow bus program of the entire school divisions for the independent cities of Petersburg and Hopewell. The drivers of our Hopewell operation set some kind of safety record in Virginia by operating two entire school years without a single accident in the late 1980s.

Virginia Overland also operated transportation for Head Start programs in Hopewell and Richmond, welfare-to-work transport in the Richmond metropolitan area, paratransit, and special operations (i.e. designing and managing transport shuttle bus systems for special events), including conventions and major NASCAR race events at Richmond International Raceway. We successfully won bids and performed several demonstration grants for new public transportation projects including suburban commuter projects and employee transportation for King's Dominion.

Dealerships: sales, parts and repair service

In our bus dealership activities, we sold over 3,000 new and used buses over a period of 28 years (1976-2004), over 2/3 of which were Wayne Corporation products. We also represented other franchised product lines, including Mid Bus, Champion Bus Incorporated, and several manufacturers of wheelchair lifts and accessories. Our garages conducted preventative maintenance programs on our own fleets and those of customers, as well as selling parts and performing warranty and body repairs.

Downsizing

We downsized considerably after 1989. The Virginia Department of Education continued a thirty-year trend of encouraging its public school divisions to self-operate school buses. Our largest school bus service contract customer, Petersburg City Public Schools, converted to self-operation that fall, ending a long relationship with our subsidiary there. Hopewell City Public Schools took a similar step in 1996, the final public school system in Virginia to contract school bus operations at the time.

Our major franchiser, Wayne Corporation, once the largest manufacturer and commanding 25% of the U.S. market, was unable to compete or find a new role successfully as consolidation occurred in the North American school bus manufacturing sector beginning in the early 1980s. After some encouraging years, the late 1980s saw the beginning of a downward spiral for one of the most experienced school bus builders. Wayne declared bankruptcy and was liquidated in late 1992.

From 1993 until 2004, our largest contracts were based from a location in Richmond, which became our sole location. In 2004, we closed the business completely following a reverse privatization of our two largest contracts.

A former Virginia Overland subsidiary operation in the Norfolk area acquired from Laidlaw in 1991 operates as Transquest and is now owned by Serco Group. As of 2007, Transquest was continuing bus contract operations transporting students to many independent schools in South Hampton Roads, including Norfolk Academy. Serco also continues a contract school bus maintenance operation for nearby Portsmouth City Public Schools which had also been performed by another former Virginia Overland subsidiary. Both Hampton Roads area operations were developed under an arrangement with a Hampton-based municipal services contracting company in 1991.

Destinations: Virginia

An important part of my work with buses involved planning group trips and tours around Virginia (our company served mostly in-state destinations). I learned which attractions groups seemed to enjoy the most, as well as how to narrate guided tours. Since it easier to narrate a subject of which you are both knowledgeable and personally interested, I found myself doing additional research in libraries, by watching the "History Channel", and by Internet web searches.

The latter activity led me to Wikipedia in 2002, and before long, I became a contributor to subjects for which I had information to add. I worked intensely on a small number of articles which gained featured article status and was named an administrator in early 2005. Later that year along with other Wikipedians involved in Wikipedia:WikiProject Virginia, I started working on improving many articles related to Jamestown as a part of preparing for the worldwide attention anticipated for the Jamestown 2007 celebration.

Moderating Yahoo! railway and bus groups

photo courtesy of Virginian Railway Enthusiasts on Yahoo

Beginning in 2002, I became active in several new (to me) activities on the Internet. In addition to working as a Wikipedia editor and administrator, I started and currently moderate five Yahoo! Groups on the Internet for bus and railway enthusiasts, which as of August 2008, had grown to a total of over 2,100 members.

These are the Yahoo! special interest transportation groups which I moderate:

• Virginian Railway Enthusiasts
• Richmond Rails
• Circus Train Enthusiasts
• Juice Train Enthusiasts
• Wayne Bus Enthusiasts

I am especially proud of Virginian Railway Enthusiasts, which is in the top 2% of Yahoo! railway groups by membership (900 members) as of August 2008. Some of our group members are actively involved in restoration and preservation activities in Virginia and West Virginia, and one group of retirees meets weekly to answer questions posed on the Internet from members on several continents. Large group seminars are held periodically. This Yahoo! group also includes a number of published authors. The most recent annual gathering was held May 2-4, 2008 at the lodge of West Virginia's beautiful Twin Falls Resort State Park, near Mullens, West Virginia. The link to the homepage for the event Friends of the Virginian Railway at Milepost 2008 will take you to photos and more information about this successful gathering.

Full-circle: voluntary caregiver

In 1991, Virginia Overland's Chairman, Marvin H. Fisher (right), was presented the annual award of the Virginia Motorcoach Association for contributions to the bus industry in Virginia. The presenter was John T. Hanna, Director of The Highway Safety Division of Virginia.

Ruth Fisher, retired co-founder of Virginia Overland Transportation, posing with her specially-assigned dealer license plate, at a bus auction in Chesterfield County, Virginia in 1998

Voluntary caregiver and family friend Dave Swan listens to Ruth Fisher at home in Williamsburg, Virginia 2005 photo

A professional companion-aide helped Ruth Fisher live in her own home in Williamsburg, Virginia 2007 photo

Even when I became an adult, my parents and I remained very close over the years and we managed our family business together for 23 years until they retired in 1996, largely due my father's deteriorating health. My parents had both long-expressed wishes to not be put in nursing homes in their final years, if at all possible. I am thankful that, during their separate periods of declining health, it was possible to honor that request for each of them.

After battling cancer for over 8 years, Marvin Fisher passed away at home on March 24, 1997. Ruth Fisher lived alone and continued to stay interested and informally involved in the business until she became gradually became disabled with Alzheimer's Disease several years later, at which time, I began staying with her, 3-4 nights a week at first, and later on a full-time basis.

The dementia had occurred on the maternal side of her family in the past. At the earliest onset of her first symptoms in 1999, we were able to discuss and begin facing it. I think this helped her cope without as much panic and despair as many victims must experience. Despite limitations, throughout her decline, she still enjoyed many things, including eating, her pets, music, and riding around (no one thought Virginia more beautiful than she), and socializing.

Beginning in 1999, I began more of a part-time role with our bus company, which had full-time managers. They helped make it possible for me to often work from my Mom's home by computer, which seemed to fit very well with my family responsibilities. In late 2002, I became interested in Wikipedia, contributing more actively beginning in 2003. While researching various Wikipedia articles, I found myself in a "learning" mode on a variety of topics, something which has continued to the current time.

Mom and I had always been night owls. Although they were married 50 years, my father, a very organized man trained in accounting, could never figure that out. His favorite expression, often in response to some light-hearted or zany behavior of my Mom was "For Heaven's Sake". Those words from me often generated a flash of memory in her eyes.

After Virginia Overland Transportation closed in June, 2004, we moved from Richmond to the Williamsburg area, which has became a retirement location of choice for many other people as well. There, she had several more years enjoying her home, music and pets, as well as the sights of the Colonial Williamsburg and the Historic Triangle. A long-dedicated shunpiker, she especially enjoyed our toll-free rides on the bucolic Colonial Parkway and the scenic Jamestown Ferry.

While I was Mom's principal voluntary caregiver, or "carer", to use an international terminology which is applied to a growing legions of folks, I did have help. For a number of years, my long-time friend Dave Swan lived with us in Richmond and Williamsburg. Dave had gained experience helping take care of his great-grandmother in her home as she suffered from both dementia and crippling arthritis in the late 1980s. He and my Mom became great friends, and when he passed away in November, 2006 from complications of MAC Disease, it was had for her to understand and accept that he was no longer there. After that time, during Mom's final year, part-time companion-aides contributed to her safety and happiness. While her capacity was diminished by the partial dementia, Mom retained her sense of humor, love of music and appetite right up until her final illness, which was of only a short duration.

My mom passed away on September 15, 2007. An article in School Transportation News Online dated Sept. 17 is very informative about her: STN Online: Founder of Virginia Overland Transportation Co. Dies.

Favorite Quotation: To be a Virginian

One of my favorite quotations is:

"To be a Virginian, either by Birth, Marriage, Adoption, or even on one's Mother's side is an Introduction to any State in the Union, a Passport to any Foreign Country, and a Benediction from Above"

Not meeting any of those criteria, I nevertheless strive to someday be considered a Virginian, albeit a transplanted one. <gr>

See also

• Wikipedia and my role as administrator and editor
• My Contributions to Wikipedia
• Did You Know?
• My Talk Page for Wikipedia

updated Mark in Historic Triangle of Virginia (talk) 20:14, 6 August 2008 (UTC)