Wayne Fisler, below, could often be seen working in the window of his shop on West Front Street. (Click to enlarge)
By JOHN T. WARD
Wayne Fisler, owner of Red Bank wine and food store Wayne’s Market on West Front Street, died Sunday. He was 58 years old.
A fixture of sorts to passersby, Fisler could often be seen on the phone or schmoozing with customers from a stool at the store’s front window.
In fact, borough Administrator Stanley Sickels and Mayor Pasquale Menna, who grew up with Fisler, referred to him as a “Red Bank fixture.”
Though Fisler was ill for many years, “the man never complained. He was always very cheery,” said Menna, who served with him as an altar boy at St. Anthony’s Church on Bridge Avenue. “You wouldn’t know he was sick.”
During his battle with prostate cancer, Fisler was featured in magazine ads for Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York.
Here’s the full obit:
Wayne Fisler, 58, of Lincroft entered into eternal life, surrounded by his family on Sunday, May 20, 2012, at Riverview Medical Center, Red Bank. Wayne was the owner of Wayne’s Market in Red Bank for the past 37 years. Wayne was a parishioner of St. Catharine’s R.C. Church, Holmdel. He was a life time member of the NRA, director of the Wayside Land Company and a founder of the Red Bank Riverfest. Wayne was a man who cherished the relationships he had with his family and multitude of friends.
Wayne was predeceased in 1974 by his grandparents, Nicholas and Carrie Pica. He is survived by his parents, Ellen and Henry Fisler of Little Silver; his wife of 34 years, Diane; two daughters, Jessica and Amanda; a sister, Sharon Fisler; two nephews, Christian and Kenneth Dammann; and his in-laws, Gloria and David Laurence and Robert and Jane Haines.
Visitation for Wayne will be held from 2 to 4 p.m. and 7 to 9 p.m. Tuesday, May 22 at the Thompson Memorial Home, 310 Broad St., Red Bank. Mass of Christian Burial will be celebrated at 10 a.m. Wednesday, May 23 at St. James R.C. Church, 94 Broad St., Red Bank. Interment will follow at Mt. Olivet Cemetery, Middletown.
The family requests that memorial donations be made in Wayne’s memory to Riverview Medical Center Foundation, Hospice Department, 1 Riverview Plaza, Red Bank, NJ 07701; Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, Attn: Dr. Susan Slovin’s Research Fund, P.O. Box 27106, New York, NY 10087 or to the Ray of Hope Foundation, 14 Hawthorne Ave., Jersey City, NJ 07306.
