An engineer who worked in major companies including Firestone Tire and
Rubber, Fish submitted his first story to Ellery Queen's Mystery
Magazine at the age of 48. He won a total of three Edgar Allan Poe awards from the Mystery Writers of America and served as the organization's president in 1976. He had open-heart surgery in 1971 but continued writing at his home in Connecticut.
On February 23, 1981, he was found dead in his study, pen in hand.