Detroit's Renaissance Center

Max Fisher was an instrumental investor in Detroit projects, both private and public. Detroit Renaissance, Inc. was a nonprofit corporation founded in 1970 by 23 business executives, the power players of Detroit's economy, with the goal of directly addressing the city's economic and social problems and ushering in a new era of vitality, hence the group's name. "Max was beautiful," recalled fellow founder Dwight Havens of Fisher's address to the new board of the organization. "I wish I had it on tape. He said: 'I want to hear that you will commit yourself and your company to what we are going to do. I owe Detroit something because Detroit has been good to me and I want to put something back ... let's bring this thing together now and form an organization that will have the strength to do what Detroit needs.'"
Credit: Max M. & Marjorie S. Fisher Foundation
Detroit business and community leaders Robert Surdam, Henry Ford II, Max Fisher, and Robert McCabe in front of the Renaissance Center, late 1970s.