Dr. William F. ‘Bill’ Fritz, internist and World War II veteran, dies
Dr. William F. “Bill” Fritz, a retired internist and World War II veteran, died in his sleep June 11 at his Riderwood home. He was 98.
“In the medical profession one of the highest compliments is to be known as a doctor’s doctor. Not only was Bill Fritz a doctor’s doctor, but he was also a friend’s friend,” said Dr. William A. Crawley, an assistant professor emeritus at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.
“He cared so much for every one of his patients and he stayed connected to them,” he said. “He’d see them at home or he’d be on the phone checking up on them.”
Sheila Riggs was both a longtime patient and a friend.
“I can only say that his patients adored him, not because of his great intelligence and medical expertise, which were top flight, but also because of the qualities he brought to the rest of his life,” Ms. Riggs wrote in an email.
“He had an extraordinary gift of empathy, and a genuine interest in the lives of his patients and friends,” she wrote. “To say that he was kind-hearted seems too small for him. The people who knew him would tell you that he was the most kind-hearted physician, father and friend that they ever had known.”
William Frederick Fritz, son of Frederick D. Fritz, a distributor of industrial leather belting, and Esther Brunkow Fritz, a homemaker, was born in Merrill, Wisconsin, and raised in Oshkosh.
After graduating from Oshkosh schools, he received an appointment to the Naval Academy from Republican U.S. Sen. Joseph R. McCarthy, which he declined, preferring to pursue a pre-medical career in the Navy during World War II, and studied at Muhlenberg College in Allentown, Pennsylvania.
After completing the program, he was stationed as a corpsman at the old Philadelphia Naval Hospital, until being discharged in 1945 with the rank of ensign.
Dr. Fritz began his medical studies in 1945 at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, from which he graduated in 1949.
While at Hopkins, his roommate’s aunt invited Dr. Fritz and several classmates to a fox hunt and dinner afterward.
When the hunt concluded, he watched Susan Baker, a Vassar College sophomore, dismount from her horse. He visited her at school and they later fell in love and married in 1950.
He completed an internship and residency at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, and then was called into the U.S. Public Health Service during the Korean War.
Dr. Fritz was assigned as senior assistant surgeon at the National Heart Institute of the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, where he was a member of a team of physicians that worked closely with Dr. Luther Terry, who in 1964 as surgeon general, warned that cigarettes were detrimental to health.
After working for two years at NIH on morbid obesity, heart disease and irreversible shock, he became a research fellow in pharmacology at Hopkins.
He returned to Hopkins Hospital as a resident in medicine and in 1955 entered private practice as an internist with a West University Parkway office until retiring in 1991.
“I’d see him every morning making rounds and seeing his patients,” Dr. Crawley said. “He had so much compassion for those he was taking care of. I’ve never really ever seen anyone like that.”
“It was a wonderful life,” said Truman T. Seamans, a partner in Brown Investment Advisory, and close friend of 70 years.
“Bill was an extraordinary human being. He was a great doctor and more importantly, a great physician. He cared about the whole person,” Mr. Semans said.
In the 1960s, Dr. Fritz inherited a Rolls Royce Silver Cloud automobile from a patient, which proved to be a mixed blessing for an individual who was a “true automobile aficionado,” said a daughter, Ann Fritz Hackett, of McLean, Virginia.
Evening Sun editorial editor, Bradford Jacbos, wrote about it in an editorial, “One Doctor’s Dilemma.”
Mr. Jacobs noted that Dr.Fritz’s wife and children were embarrassed to be seen riding in the Rolls, and Dr. Fritz acknowledged that the sight of his arrival on a house call might cause the patient to suffer a serious relapse, so sold the car.
On the centennial of the Hopkins Medical School, Dr. Fritz was one of the recipients of the distinguished physician award.
He was a fellow of the American College of Physicians and a diplomate, or recognized specialist, of the American Board of Internal Medicine.
In addition to being on the staffs of Hopkins and GBMC, he practiced at MedStar Union Memorial Hospital and the old Church Hospital and Home.
He served on several boards, including GBMC’s and the foundation boards of both GBMC and MedStar Union Memorial Hospital.
For years, Dr. Fritz, and his wife lived in Ruxton, until moving in 1960 to Bryn Arden, their Green Spring Valley home, where they raised their three children.
They returned to Ruxton in 1983, and in recent years, Dr. Fritz lived at Riderwood Station in Riderwood.
In retirement, he took up oil painting, and at the age of 84, wrote and published a mystery novel, “Thy Will Be Done.” He regularly completed three crossword puzzles a day until macular degeneration forced him to give it up, but he was able to do them once a week with a granddaughter by Zoom.
He and his wife, who died in 2009, enjoyed playing tennis and golf and had played at courses around the world including Ireland and Portugal.
They summered at their home, Still Pond, in Jaffrey Center, New Hampshire, and spent winters at the Jupiter Island Club in Hobe Sound, Florida.
A social man, Dr. Fritz was a gifted and spirited conversationalist who had a deep interest in current events.
In recent years, when suffering from macular degeneration, he refused to allow it to interfere with his social gatherings.
“Bill was very proud of his loving family and he had many close friends from New England to Florida and throughout the country,” said Dr. Earl Galleher, a friend of 70 years, and a retired Baltimore physician.
“He kept up with all despite his many physical difficulties throughout his final years,” he said. “I spoke with him every night for 40 years.”
Dr. Fritz was a longtime communicant of the Episcopal Church of the Redeemer, 5603 N. Charles St., where a memorial service will held at 3 p.m. July 19.
In addition to his daughter, he is survived by a son, William F.B. Fritz, of Annapolis; another daughter, Ellen Fritz Clattenburg, of Weathersfield, Vermont; eight grandchildren; and 12 great-grandchildren.