Early UA student tied to Tucson history

TUCSON, Ariz. (KGUN) — The 160th University of Arizona commencement is scheduled for Friday night.

But going back more than 100 years, before even the first commencement, one of the earliest U of A students is still tied to Tucson and Southern Arizona.

In 1891, Clara Fish was one of the first students to enroll at the university. She did so as a prep student, as there were no high schools in the territory at the time.

“She actually finished all of her credits for graduation in 1896 and was the only student to graduate at that point in time,” said Erika Castaño at UA Special Collections. “But the university didn’t want to just hold a commencement exercises for one person so they made her wait an entire year.”

So in 1897, she was part of the second class to graduate at the U of A. She became a founding member of the school’s alumni association.

Fish would marry, and become Clara Fish Roberts, and went on to become a teacher.

Her grandson, Fred Roberts, grew up in Tucson and now lives in Patagonia, Ariz.

“Oh God, I remember a lot of things. I spent a lot of my life with her,” he recalled about his grandmother. “Very gregarious. She could remember names. She never forgot a name… And she was the first woman on the school board and then she became the first woman president of the school board.”

The family’s UA lineage lives on. Fred’s dad—and Clara’s son—graduated in 1928. Fred graduated in 1958, and his daughters did so in the early ‘80s.

And the family has left a mark on Tucson. Roberts-Naylor K-8 School is named after Fish.

Clara’s dad and Fred’s great-grandfather, Edward Nye Fish, and his wife Maria, are immortalized on a plaque in front of what was their home on Main Avenue in downtown Tucson. Today, the plaque sits outside the Tucson Museum of Art, recognizing that they added to the growth and prosperity of early Tucson.

Edward Nye, or E.N., Fish is also the namesake for Fish Canyon in Patagonia.

“My grandmother just instilled this in me and I grew up with this,” Roberts said of his family history in the area. “This is it, this is home.”