Abigail Claire Applegate Fisher

Abigail Claire Applegate Fisher, known to family and friends as Abi, died in Albany, New York on October 5, 2026 at age 38. She is survived by her parents Charles Fisher and Mary Applegate, her sister Virginia Fisher, her niece & nephew Sonia & Liam Fisher Taub, and many aunts, uncles, and cousins.

She died as the result of a head-on collision in which the other driver crossed the median into her lane. Despite being airlifted to Albany Medical Center, and excellent care from all medical and nursing staff, she died four days later. It is a source of great comfort to her parents that they were able to act according to Abi's wishes and make her organs and tissues available to recipients who needed them.

Abi was born in Amherst MA, where she spent the first four years of her life before she and her family moved to the Capital Region.  She attended  the Emma Willard School, from which she graduated in 2006, followed by Smith College, graduating in 2010 with a degree in Mathematics. She then returned to the Albany area and earned an MBA at SUNY Albany in Information Systems.

After working in Albany for several years in health inormation technolology, Abi moved to a mountain village in Costa Rica, where she worked remotely in a technology position, and as a part-time massage therapist. She loved Costa Rica and was planning to become a citizen and live there permanently. In the meantime, she returned to the Capital Region and worked as a business analyst at NYSTEC, a technology consulting firm that works with state agencies to improve their operations. Among other roles, she was on a team that helped the Office of Mental Health to develop an electronic medical record system to link its inpatient and outpatient care centers

She lived near Schenectady on the shore of beautiful Mariaville Lake and spent many happy hours at the Plotterkill Preserve very close to her home.

Abi loved to sing. During high school and college she sang in acapella groups: the Twelve Tones at Emma Willard and the Smithereens at Smith.

She will be remembered always as a loving, generous and devoted friend and family member who lit up the room wherever she went. She was close with dear friends she had known since elementary school, as well as those she had connected with only recently.

Abi was an activist, especially for issues of peace and justice in Palestine and for environmental causes. The morning of the accident she was on her way to a rally to block a gas pipeline near her home.

Donations in her honor can be made to organizations supporting either of those causes.

Her memorial service will be held on Saturday, November 21st at 1pm at the Albany Unitarian Universalist Society at 405 Washington Avenue in downtown Albany.