In memory of
Fedor Enrique Tisch
November 21, 1934 - September 9, 2024
One of Canada’s premier architects, Fedor Tisch was surrounded by loved ones as he died on September 9, 2024, after a long battle with cancer, at the Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre. He was two months shy of his ninetieth birthday. Fedor is survived by Edie (Echevarria), his wife of sixty years; his children Daniel Tisch (Kerri Sakamoto) and Karen Tisch (Mark Slone); and his grandchildren Eric Tisch (Jordana Green), Isabella Slone and Mateo “Teo” Tisch. He was preceded in death by his brother, Otto, and his parents, Felix and Lilly Tisch (zl).
Fedor was born in Budapest, Hungary, on November 26, 1934, and spent his early years in Bielsko, Poland. He escaped Nazi Europe with his parents and brother in 1939, losing two of his grandparents in the Holocaust. After an anxious year in Barcelona looking for a new country, the family arrived in Uruguay, where Fedor grew up. He attended the Lycée Française, graduated from the Faculty of Architecture at the Universidad de la República, and pursued post-graduate studies at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
In the early 1960s, Fedor met Edie Echevarria, a local staff member at the U.S. Embassy in Montevideo. They married in 1964. The couple lived in Spain for three years, where they welcomed their children, Daniel and Karen, before moving to Canada.
While they arrived with very little, Fedor’s career blossomed when he joined the Webb Zerafa Menkes Housden (WZMH) Partnership, an emerging architectural firm that helped to reinvent the Toronto skyline in the 1970s and 1980s. Fedor worked on the CN Tower, Royal Bank Plaza and Bay Adelaide Centre, and was the lead partner architect on the iconic red granite Scotia Plaza. As the firm’s work gained international notice, Fedor led projects around the world, most notably the Shanghai Securities Exchange Building. After 41 years with the firm, he retired as its senior partner in 2008. While Fedor and Edie travelled extensively throughout their life together, retirement took them to many more countries and ports of call on international cruises.
Fedor's family and friends will remember his formidable intellect and curiosity, keen aesthetic sense, wry sense of humour, intolerance of absurdity, meticulous attention to detail, storytelling prowess, love of complex travel itineraries and endless appetite for home renovation projects. While he was not given to expressing praise, he was quietly proud of the achievements of his children and grandchildren, and deeply admired Edie’s character, strength and beauty.
In lieu of flowers, please direct donations to the Melanoma and Skin Oncology Site Fund at the Princess Margaret Cancer Foundation, in recognition of the extraordinary care that Fedor received from Dr. Marcus Butler and the entire hospital team for nine years.
Donation link: https://supportthepmcf.ca/ui/PDPMemorial/p/259010232e81415289b9f9b83ea1204f
The Tisch family will hold a private burial at the Mount Pleasant Cemetery on Wednesday September 11, and plans a celebration of life for family friends and Fedor's colleagues closer to what would have been his ninetieth birthday in November.
Fedor was born in Budapest, Hungary, on November 26, 1934, and spent his early years in Bielsko, Poland. He escaped Nazi Europe with his parents and brother in 1939, losing two of his grandparents in the Holocaust. After an anxious year in Barcelona looking for a new country, the family arrived in Uruguay, where Fedor grew up. He attended the Lycée Française, graduated from the Faculty of Architecture at the Universidad de la República, and pursued post-graduate studies at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
In the early 1960s, Fedor met Edie Echevarria, a local staff member at the U.S. Embassy in Montevideo. They married in 1964. The couple lived in Spain for three years, where they welcomed their children, Daniel and Karen, before moving to Canada.
While they arrived with very little, Fedor’s career blossomed when he joined the Webb Zerafa Menkes Housden (WZMH) Partnership, an emerging architectural firm that helped to reinvent the Toronto skyline in the 1970s and 1980s. Fedor worked on the CN Tower, Royal Bank Plaza and Bay Adelaide Centre, and was the lead partner architect on the iconic red granite Scotia Plaza. As the firm’s work gained international notice, Fedor led projects around the world, most notably the Shanghai Securities Exchange Building. After 41 years with the firm, he retired as its senior partner in 2008. While Fedor and Edie travelled extensively throughout their life together, retirement took them to many more countries and ports of call on international cruises.
Fedor's family and friends will remember his formidable intellect and curiosity, keen aesthetic sense, wry sense of humour, intolerance of absurdity, meticulous attention to detail, storytelling prowess, love of complex travel itineraries and endless appetite for home renovation projects. While he was not given to expressing praise, he was quietly proud of the achievements of his children and grandchildren, and deeply admired Edie’s character, strength and beauty.
In lieu of flowers, please direct donations to the Melanoma and Skin Oncology Site Fund at the Princess Margaret Cancer Foundation, in recognition of the extraordinary care that Fedor received from Dr. Marcus Butler and the entire hospital team for nine years.
Donation link: https://supportthepmcf.ca/ui/PDPMemorial/p/259010232e81415289b9f9b83ea1204f
The Tisch family will hold a private burial at the Mount Pleasant Cemetery on Wednesday September 11, and plans a celebration of life for family friends and Fedor's colleagues closer to what would have been his ninetieth birthday in November.