 Fitzgerald graduated from high school and attended Baldwin-Wallace College in Berea, Ohio and Notre Dame in the V-12 Navy College Training Program, where he earned a bachelor's degree in naval science in 1947.He also holds honorary Ph.D.s from the University of Wisconsin–Whitewater and Baldwin-Wallace College.He married Marilyn Cullen of Janesville on August 1, 1950 at Notre Dame's Old College Chapel.