Norbert "Bert" Fischer defected from the Hungarian ski team at the 1948 Olympics, co-wrote a song for the Glenn Miller Orchestra and won $300,000 from the Ohio Lottery. But he's best remembered as a leading proponent of downhill skiing for Ohioans and for people with disabilities.

The widower died May 18 at the VA Stokes Medical Center. He was 87.

"He was incredibly creative," said Tom West, head of the U.S. Ski and Snowboard Hall of Fame, which named Fischer a Pioneer of Skiing. "He did whatever he could to promote skiing."

In 1930, Fischer's father couldn't find fencing equipment in Budapest to give his only child for Christmas. So he settled for skis instead. The 4-year-old loved them.

"Going down the mountains was so pretty and relaxing," Fischer told The Press in Avon Lake last year.

The boy took to ballet, too, and danced in a state company. But he hated Communist rule. He defected in St. Moritz, Switzerland. He spent a month in a holding cell and then a couple years in Switzerland and Austria, competing in races.

In 1951, he moved to Cleveland because of its big Hungarian community. He met his future wife, Evelyn Slees, at First Hungarian Lutheran Church on Buckeye Road.

He won a skiing scholarship to Seattle University. During the Korean War, he served as an engineer there, captained the Eighth Army ski team in Japan and taught skiing and survival in Colorado.

Back in Cleveland, Fischer laid bricks, owned a delicatessen, sold appliances and sporting goods for Sears, gave financial advice, peddled life insurance and taught ballet. He left Hough for Bay Village after the riot.

His family says he was the first Ohioan certified by the Professional Ski Instructors of America. He ran the Bert Fischer Ski School at Boston Mills and Brandywine. He also taught at Alpine Valley, the Cleveland Ski Club and elsewhere. He won several of Ohio's earliest skiing championships.

In the early 60s, Fischer became what experts consider one of the U.S.'s first teachers of adaptive skiing. He worked with designers to create the Ski-EZE, a device helping people with disabilities ski in parallel. In 1980, he led the rise of Three Trackers of Ohio, volunteers teaching adaptive skiers for free. He also organized the state's first adaptive race, drawing skiers from across the U.S. and Canada.

He wrote many articles about skiing and created a "Skiing With Bert" show that aired on more than 50 NBC affiliates. He wrote the show's theme song, "Let's Go Skiing Along Together," which later became a sing-a-long at the U.S. Ski and Snowboard Hall of Fame's yearly ceremony. He wrote the lyrics and co-wrote the music for "My Sentiment", recorded by the Glenn Miller Orchestra in 1971 in London's Royal Festival Hall.

Fischer won the Lottery in 1976 and took a few relatives and friends to a restaurant to celebrate. He didn't bring enough cash to pay the bill, but the restaurant gave him credit.

He played piano, guitar and harmonica. He liked to cook, especially Hungarian dishes such as chicken paprikash and rye bread soaked in fat from pig's hide. He spent many vacations skiing in Snowmass, Colo.

Among many honors, Fischer was inducted into the National Disabled Ski Hall of Fame and won the Golden Quill Award from the North American Ski Journalists Association. He was a board member of the Professional Ski Instructors Association.

He and his wife moved to Avon Lake in 2008.

Norbert "Bert" Fischer

1926-2013

Survivors: sons Mark of Bay Village, Clark of Seven Hills and Erik of Bay Village; eight grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren.

Funeral: 5 p.m. Saturday, May 25, at Jenkins Funeral Chapel, 2914 Dover Center Rd., Westlake.