Mary Fisher Knott, a designer whose 63-year career helped define ergonomic and aging-in-place thinking in the kitchen and bath industry, passed away on Sept. 15 after a short illness. She was 85.
Fisher Knott founded Mary Fisher Designs in 1963, building a residential space-planning practice that served clients throughout California, Arizona and Oregon. Long before “universal design” and “aging in place” entered the industry’s everyday vocabulary, she was already asking the questions those movements would later formalize, such as:
- Whether counter, sink and storage heights suited the people actually using them
- How to reduce the bending, reaching and twisting that wear on a body over time
- How a kitchen or bath could remain usable as a homeowner’s mobility, vision or dexterity changed
She described her approach as a fusion of nutrition, fitness and design and treated ergonomics not as an add-on but as the starting point of every project.
Over the course of her career, Fisher Knott designed more than 5,000 kitchens and received eight professional awards. Her path into design ran through 12 years with public utility companies, where she pioneered home modernization and energy conservation programs for residential customers, including a stint from 1968 to 1974 as director of the home modernization program for Pacific Power. She went independent in 1974, taking on private, commercial and professional clients across the country, still actively serving them until her recent illness.
Fisher Knott held the CID, Allied ASID, CLIPP and CAPS credentials, and was a member of Residential Space Planner International. She was as well known as a teacher as a practitioner, conducting kitchen and bath planning seminars throughout the western U.S. and lecturing on home improvement topics to consumers and professionals alike. She wrote for trade and consumer publications throughout her career and authored the textbook “Kitchen and Bath Basics” and an ebook titled “The Ergonomic Home.”
Colleagues across the industry remember Fisher Knott as one of the field’s earliest voices for designing around a client’s body, routines and life stage rather than trend alone, an approach that anticipated much of what the industry now calls wellness design and living-in-place practice. She was a longtime member of the NKBA and a fixture at the KBIS show for decades, only missing the event the past few years. She was a beacon of positivity, bringing joy and cheer to everyone she encountered.
Mary Fisher Knott is survived by her sister, Liz; her brothers, George and Chuck; and her children, Melissa, Jeffrey, Jason and Melody. She was preceded in death by her brother, Bob, and her husband, Webb.
