Obituary: Manfred Fischinger
It is with sadness that we say goodbye to our former technical director.
It is with great sadness that we learned that our longtime technical director, Manfred Fischinger, passed away unexpectedly last week in the early hours of Thursday morning. His wife, Terry, who continues to work with us, shared the news with us.
Manfred Fischinger was a Starline employee from the very beginning. He joined us in October 1992, having previously worked with company founder Manfred Ganser. In this way, he helped shape our company from the very beginning, in the truest sense of the word.
Anyone who knew this veteran of the industry knows: Manfred was never at a loss for a witty remark. His most famous quote—“Starline is not a garage company”—has stuck with us here at the company to this day and will likely live on for a long time to come. Nothing could rattle him easily, whether he had to reach for a delicate precision tool or a heavy-duty hammer. The main thing was that the repair was done right in the end.
One of his great personal passions was cooking. Even after his well-deserved retirement in January 2016, we saw him around here time and again—whether to pick up his wife at Starline, join in the fun at company parties, or cook for us: He enjoyed stopping by, usually with his dry sense of humor that many longtime employees knew well. Most recently, he cooked Bolognese for us last week—a scene that many of us can still vividly picture.
We’ll remember him as a sometimes grumpy but always mischievously humorous person—someone who helped shape Starline from the very beginning and whose spirit will stay with us for a long time to come. Our condolences go out not only to Terry but also to the entire Fischinger family.