HAROLD "CARL" CARLTON FITZ, JR. was born in 1926, in Charleston, SC, and lived for several years in China and the Philippines as a boy. In 1944, he graduated from Severn School in Severna Park, MD, and attended Johns Hopkins University for one year before entering USMA in 1945 with the Class of '49.

After graduation, Carl served in the Panama Canal Zone and commanded an Infantry company there. In 1955, he earned an MS in nuclear physics from the University of Alabama at Tuscaloosa and then served in the Field Command of the Armed Forces Special Weapons Project at Sandia Base, NM. During 1959-61, he earned a PhD in solid state physics from the University of Virginia in Charlottesville.

During 1961-64, Carl served at the U.S. Army Satellite Communications Agency at Ft. Monmouth, NJ. He then served as an Associate Professor in the Department of Physics at West Point until 1967, when he moved to Annandale, VA, as a project officer in the Defense Atomic Support Agency, later named the Defense Nuclear Agency. He retired from the Army in 1970 as a lieutenant colonel and moved to Shady Side, MD in 1980, with a second home in Charleston, SC.

Carl became a division chief in the Defense Nuclear Agency, now the Defense Special Weapons Agency, during 1970-85. As Chief of the Atmospheric Effects Division, during 1970-77 and 1979-85, and Chief of the Electronics Vulnerability Division, during 1977-79, he developed major experimental and theoretical programs to investigate the effects of nuclear weapon detonations on atmospheric dynamics. These programs provided a computer simulation of the space and atmospheric environments, allowing the development of experiments to investigate the effects of nuclear weapons on communication, radar, and optical systems.

In 1985, Carl continued similar work as vice president for Physical Research, Inc. He then established a Shady Side office of Visidyne, Inc., in 1992, continuing his life's scientific research and management endeavors in atmospheric physics.

Carl was a member of Sigma Xi and was listed in Who's Who in the East. He was an active member of the St. James' Episcopal Parish in Lothian, MD; sang in the choir; and helped edit the second volume of the parish history. He raced and cruised sailboats extensively on Chesapeake Bay, was a member and past commodore of the West River Sailing Club, and was a member of the Annapolis and the Carolina Yacht Clubs. In 1984, Carl served as president of the Chesapeake Bay Action Program in Shady Side to protect Chesapeake Bay watersheds. At the time of his death, he had completed a working scale model of his invention, termed a "cylindropter." He designed a unique rotary wing, that when mounted on an aircraft, allows the craft to hover and fly vertically and horizontally, maneuvering in very limited spaces.

Carl was awarded the Medal for Meritorious Civilian Service by the Secretary of Defense in 1985 and the Exceptional Civilian Service Medal by the Defense Nuclear Agency in 1974.

Harold Carlton Fitz, Jr., was 70 years old when he died suddenly of cardiac arrest in April 1997 at his home in Shady Side, MD. He was Senior Vice President of Visidyne, Inc., at the time.

Carl is survived by his wife of 47 years, Virginia White Fitz; three children, Virginia Fitz Shea, Elizabeth Fitz Scott, and Harold Canton Fitz III; and five grandchildren. His father was U.S. Navy Rear Admiral Harold Canton Fitz and his mother was Lois Middleton Hazlehurst Fitz.

Personal Eulogy