Shelton Fisher Dies; Headed McGraw-Hill

Shelton Fisher, retired chairman of the board of McGraw-Hill Inc., died Friday at Stamford Hospital in Connecticut after a brief illness. He was 73.

Fisher, was head of the multi-media publishing and television company when the firm paid $750,000 to author Clifford Irving in the early 1970s for what turned out to be a bogus biography of Howard Hughes. He had become president of the New York-based publishing firm in 1966 and served as chief executive officer from 1968 to 1975. He became chairman of the board in 1974, and retired in 1976.

Fisher joined McGraw-Hill in 1940 as promotion manager of Business Week, after posts with Curtis Publishing Co. and McCann-Erickson. After serving in the Navy during World War II, Fisher became publisher of Power magazine in 1949.