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= Marvin Fishman = Marvin Fishman (January 29, 1925 - October 9, 2009) was an American entrepreneur known primarily as a Milwaukee-area real estate developer, a founding owner of the Milwaukee Bucks basketball team, and later, in partnership with his wife Janet, a significant art collector of international renown.

Personal Life and Education
Fishman was born to Russian immigrants, David and Mary Fishman, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He served as a radio man and gunnery instructor in the United States Army Air Force during World War II before enrolling at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. He graduated with a bachelor's degree in business administration in 1949 and a master's degree in business administration in 1950, and was a member of the Alpha Epsilon Pi collegiate fraternity. Fishman met his wife, Janet Baum, while at university in Madison, Wisconsin. Both were students at the University of Wisconsin-Madison at the time. They were married on June 12, 1951, in Milwaukee. Together they had three children: Mark, Leslie, and Susan.

Real Estate Business
After graduating from the University of Wisconsin, Fishman was unable to find work in his chosen market research field. In the early 1950's, he turned to real-estate and founded the company, M.L. Fishman Building Corp. Fishman found success developing affordable homes and marketing them to returning WW2 GI's. By 1952, he was known as the Cape Cod King in reference to the Cape Cod style of home his company predominantly built. By 1960, Fishman was a member of the Metropolitan Builders Associaion of Greater Milwaukee, the National Association of Home Builders, the Milwaukee Building Realtors, and the Wisconsin Association of Real Estate Brokers.

American Football League
By the mid-1960's, Fishman was disappointed that Milwaukee lacked a professional sports franchise. Fishman met with American Football League commissioner Joe Foss who expressed a willingness to grant Milwaukee an AFL expansion team. After receiving a positive second opinion from Terry Brennan, Fishman and Brennan met with Sonny Werblin in New York, the head of the AFL expansion committee. Fishman's pitch ultimately convinced American State Bank to pledge a $900,000 line of credit toward the proposed expansion franchise.

Fishman's efforts, though, would ultimately be for naught due to people he dubbed "Packer Backers." While based in Green Bay, Wisconsin, the Green Bay Packers held considerable sway over the Milwaukee area and played three home games at County Stadium in Milwaukee. While Fishman argued that Milwaukee could support both the established Packers fans and a new AFL franchise, the County Board, wary of infringing on the Packers' interests or risking the ire of Vince Lombardi, denied Fishman a lease at County Stadium. County Board chairman, Eugene Grobschmidt, was quoted in the Milwaukee Journal as saying, "I wouldn't do anything that would hurt the Packers down here. ... Unless Vince Lombardi okays it, I won't go along with it." Without a stadium, there could be no expansion team.

Continental Football League
In September of 1966, Fishman met again with the County Board to request a County Stadium lease agreement for a new proposal: this time, Fishman wanted to bring a Continental Football League franchise to Milwaukee. At the same time as Fishman's presentation to the Board, coincidentally, Vince Lombardi signed a new seven-year extension of the Packers' contract of exclusivity at County Stadium. Again, without a stadium at which to play, the proposed expansion team fell apart.

Milwaukee Bucks
Unable to bring a football team to Milwaukee, Fishman set his sights on the NBA in 1967. Fishman partnered with Wes Pavalon, a wealthy businessman from Chicago and, together with other investors, founded Milwaukee Professional Sports and Services, Inc. Pavalon served as president and Fishman as Vice President. Under that entity, Pavalon and Fishman, et al, were awarded the winning bid to bring an NBA expansion team to Milwaukee. The franchise cost $2,000,000, and Fishman worked with NBA commissioner J. Walter Kennedy on a payment plan: "A typical real estate deal," Fishman said. "I worked out an approval of $500,000 down, and $500,000 for the next three years." Fishman served as vice chairman of the board of directors of the Bucks even as his influence waned by the fall of 1972.

Art Collection
Fishman, and his wife Janet, began collecting art in the late 1940's while still at university. By the 1980's, they divested their collection of non-Germanic art to focus solely on New Objectivity and German Expressionist art of the early 20th century. In the proceeding 20 years, the Fishmans "went on to put together one of the finest and most comprehensive collections of its kind ever formed." In the five years between 1988 and 1994, the Fishmans were selected by Art & Antiques magazine to be amongst their top 100 art collectors in the United States.

Heralding new appreciation of the genre / Ludwig meidner

Over the course of their collecting career, the Fishmans lent artwork to over sixty exhibitions pertaining to their own collection or as additions to others. The Fishmans also donated many works of art to local museums and institutions, including the Haggerty Museum of Art, the Milwaukee Art Museum, Cardinal Stritch University, the University of Wisconsin–Whitewater, and the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee. Fishman's wish was to make Milwaukee "the strongest city in the USA in hyper-realistic German art of the 20th century." Toward that goal, they granted permission to publishers to use myriad image reproductions of their collected artwork to adorn book covers in exchange for credit line recognition of the city of Milwaukee. "'What pleases the Fishmans most about the entire enterprise, Marv says, is the worldwide media exposure it gives to Milwaukee. Prime ministers show up, still and TV cameras abound, reporters hurl questions, full-page spreads blossom.'"The Marvin and Janet Fishman Family Collection is no longer extant and has since been dispersed to numerous museums, galleries, and private collections.

Death
In October of 2009, Marvin Fishman suffered a stroke and died in a Milwaukee-area hospital at the age of 84.

Awards and Honors

 * American Campaign Service Medal - United States Armed Forces
 * Builder of the 1961 Official Home Show Home
 * Award of Honor of the Elvehjem Council - Elvehjem Museum
 * Kairos Award - Marquette University
 * Officer's Cross of the Order of Merit (Bundesverdienstkreuz) - Federal Republic of Germany; Presented by the President of Germany, Richard von Weizsäcker
 * Honorary Doctorate - Cardinal Stritch University
 * Honorary Doctorate of Humanities - University of Wisconsin-Whitewater
 * Honorary Doctorate of Fine Arts - Marquette University