Kenneth Fitzgerald of Raleigh, NC passed away on September 30 at the age of 85. Ken was preceded in death by his mother Bernadette Fitzgerald, father Arthur Fitzgerald, sister Winifred Perini, brother Vincent Fitzgerald, son-in-law David LaTowsky, and loving wife of 60 years Patricia Fitzgerald. They were married in New York on Thanksgiving Day 1956. Ken is survived by his brother Richard, (wife Beverly) and brother George. He is lovingly remembered by his daughters: Genevieve of Raleigh, Kathleen of Chapel Hill, Therese (husband, David) of Chapel Hill, Maura (husband, Rusty) of Raleigh, and son Kevin (wife, Clara) of Columbia, MD; his ten grandchildren, Colette (husband, Iain); Mallory (husband, William), Edward (wife, Miranda); Nile; Erika (husband, Ose); Daniel; Spencer; Deanna; Nicholas; Gregory; his five great-grandchildren (Lincoln, Owen, Harper Grace, Elliott and Kane) and many nieces, nephews and cousins.
Ken was born February 21, 1934 in Brooklyn, NY. He received a BS in Math from Queens College, where he met his wife Pat at the Newman Club. He received an MA in Math in 1960 from New York University and did a Research Fellowship at Carnegie Mellon University in 1968, taking his family to Pittsburgh while there. He worked at IBM his entire career, from 1956 to 1991. While there he was a pioneer in Operating Systems design and development, earning an Outstanding Contribution Award for OS/360 Supervisor design. Designing networking capability for computers so that they could ‘talk to one another’ (IBM 704/709 SOS, IBM 1410/7010 Op. Sys., IBM 8100 Operating System), he was awarded a remote computer patent. Through IBM he was a Visiting Professor of Computer Science at Southern University in 1986/87.
Ken was a gentleman, greeting everyone he saw. He was also sharp-witted and ready to debate, especially in a teasing way. He was an active volunteer for many years with Catholic Parish Outreach, Raleigh Diocese Respect Life, North Carolina Respect Life and the North Carolina Museum of Art. He and his wife taught religious education for many years. Ken had many interests, jogging and later tennis among them, as well as hiking and canoeing. He enjoyed travel and tasting regional foods and had a definite sweet tooth. He and Pat had season tickets to the NC Symphony, and he liked mysteries, Masterpiece Theater and math puzzles.
Ken will be fondly remembered and deeply missed by friends and family. A memorial service will be held 11:00 on Wednesday, October 9 at St. Francis of Assisi Catholic Church in Raleigh. The family will receive friends at a reception and celebration of his life, at St. Francis, immediately following the service.
In lieu of flowers, memorial donations may be made to Catholic Charities of the Diocese of Raleigh, 7200 Stonehenge Drive, Raleigh, NC 27613-1620, or NC Right to Life, 3523 Rehobeth Church Rd a, Greensboro, NC 27406.
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