Vardis and his brother Vivian lived with their aunt one year while attending school in Annis. Vardis and Vivian, at ages thirteen and ten, transferred to a school in Poplar, Idaho the next year, where they lived on their own for half of the school year. They attended high school in Rigby, living in a hut built by their father. They lived off of fish and other wildlife. One of Vardis's classmates described them as wearing old-fashioned clothes and being social outcasts. Vardis graduated from Rigby High School in 1915 and began studies at the University of Utah (U of U) in the same year. He married Leona McMurtrey in 1917 and often spent all his free time studying and reading. Fisher signed up to join the Air Force in the spring of 1918 and attended cadet school in Berkeley, California. He lost motivation when he found out that he might become a non-commissioned officer, and resigned in early summer, returning to Idaho Falls. Fisher's mother had been ordered by her doctor to move from Fisher Bottom to a place with a milder climate, so she moved to Idaho Falls. Vardis's father, Joe Fisher, went to auto mechanic's school in Portland, Oregon, and started an automotive shop in Idaho Falls with his brother. Vardis Fisher worked with his father and uncle in their automotive shop, and stayed there while Leona went to live with her parents in Antelope while their baby was born.