Department mourns loss of longtime colleague Robert Fitzgerald

Robert Fitzgerald, a pioneering researcher in physiology and a decades-long faculty member of the Department, died April 20 at the age of 90. 

Fitzgerald was intensely committed to the Department, School, and University in its goals of further scholarship and education for fellows, graduate, and undergraduate students. While his research in physiology was riveted by the carotid body and its importance in cardiovascular homeostasis,  his broader commitment to education extended throughout his academic career even to the current fourth term in the School of Public Health.  

Fitzgerald's academic training began at the University of Notre Dame and his undergraduate degree in engineering and classical languages was conferred by Xavier University in Cincinnati in 1954. Following a master’s degree in philosophy, he earned his PhD from the University of Chicago in physiology in 1963. Further degrees in theology followed his PhD degree training at Woodstock College. He joined a predecessor department in Environmental Medicine as a part-time postdoctoral fellow in 1963 and was appointed assistant professor in 1967. While Fitzgerald was completing his postdoctoral training, he was a member of a Jesuit monastery in Baltimore. His 55 years as an academician in the School and Department include a promotion to professor in 1978, services as associate chair from 1980 to 1988, acting director of the Division of Toxicological Sciences and interim chair of the Department following Gareth Green’s departure in 1990. Bob stewarded this transition time for nearly two years prior to the appointment of ohn Groopman as chair in 1992.  

Fitzgerald was a pioneer and a world-renowned expert in carotid body research, especially for establishing the hypercapnic sensitivity of the carotid body, and the cholinergic hypothesis of chemotransduction. He was an elected fellow of the Royal Academy of Medicine in Ireland in 1990. Fitzgerald was interviewed in an installment of the American Physiological Society Living History of Physiology series, about his upbringing, Jesuit studies, and how he eventually became interested in physiology. 

Groopman recalls that while he was chair of the Department, Fitzgerald never hesitated to chide him when he felt that he was wrong in making a decision or supporting him when he thought that it was correct. He fiercely defended individuals who he felt had been inappropriately treated both personally and professionally. Colleagues knew when he was most passionate because he would start to speak in Latin. His resiliency as an academic scholar and through several personal health issues was remarkable, and many recall how committed he was to returning from serious injury following a bicycle accident to reestablish his presence in the Department. Perhaps one of his most memorable attributes was that there was no gray area in his opinions. One always knew where he stood on an issue, and he delighted in debating the fine points of science or his passion for baseball and soccer. 

Fitzgerald is survived by his son Akira Shirahata Fitzgerald, who is a professional soccer player, and his loving partner Angela Ruddle, who was with him for the last 11 years of his life. Fitzgerald's second wife, Machiko Shirahata, was a faculty member in EHE until her passing in 2016.