FitzGerald was born in Boston in 1909, and grew up in nearby Wakefield, Massachusetts.[2] After attending the Severn School in Maryland, he entered the United States Naval Academy in 1927 and graduated in 1931.[2] He attended submarine school, and was later assigned to Pearl Harbor; he left the Navy in 1934 to attend Harvard Law School.[2] After some successful investing, FitzGerald decided to leave law school to learn corporate finance; he worked for the Borden Milk Company until being recalled by the Navy in April 1941.[2]