 He was born to a political family; he was the grandson of John Wesley Fitzgerald, a Michigan state representative from Eaton County (1895–96) and the son of Frank Dwight Fitzgerald, governor of Michigan from 1935–1936 and 1939, and Queena Warner Fitzgerald.Fitzgerald graduated from Grand Ledge High School in 1942.Fitzgerald served in the U.S. Army infantry during World War II.