He attended the public schools, read law in the office of John M. Sprigg and was admitted to the bar in 1896. He commenced practice in Dayton as a partner in the law firm of Sprigg & Fitzgerald that later became Fitzgerald & Sprigg.
In 1900, Fitzgerald married Caroline L. Wetecamp of Greenville, Ohio with whom he had two daughters and a son. Their son, Roy Jr., was a major in World War II, survived the Battle of the Bulge but died five months after VJ Day. Caroline Fitzgerald was a sickly woman, in the later years of her husband's Congressional service. She died in 1935. Fitzgerald married, secondly, to Alverda J. Sinks of Miami County, Ohio.
During his decade in Congress, Fitzgerald fought for a number of causes that dismayed his more conservative colleagues, including child labor laws, reorganization of the U.S. Army Air Corps as an independent body and Federal care of the needy aged. The latter anticipated Social Security.
In 1922, Fitzgerald introduced a constitutional amendment to allow Congress to control the labor and working hours of children under 18 which was passed by Congress in 1924. By 1938, only 28 states had ratified it when Congress passed the Fair Labor Standards Act (29 U.S. Code Chapter 8), incorporating many of the child labor provisions of the amendment.
A licensed pilot and early advocate of flying, Fitzgerald was acquainted with Wright brothers. Rep. Fitzgerald was called an "aerial daredevil" of Congress by The New York Times for flying the 500-odd miles from Dayton to Washington for the reconvening of the lame duck session of Congress in 1922 (though that flight was piloted by someone else).[1] In Dayton, he secured the location of Wright Field (now part of Wright-Patterson Air Force Base). His interest in flying led him, in 1927, to urge that the Air Force be reorganized as an independent department of the national defense. "The recent oceanic flights", he said at the time, "coupled with the preliminary tests of heavy bombing planes, have startled the world with the tremendous power of aviation. Aircraft have generally appeared to be the cheapest instruments of defense. Now they prove themselves to be one of the most powerful."
Later life
After his Congressional service, he resumed the independent practice of law in Dayton, with partners Thomas H. Ford, and Wayne F. Lee.
An active man, Roy Fitzgerald climbed Mount Rainier in 1925 and four years later swam the Bosphorus from Europe to Asia in a cold rain. The swim took him 30 minutes.
In June 1934, Congressman Fitzgerald purchased a Dayton-area farm from Frederick B. Patterson, president of National Cash Register Corp. The farm was 133 acres (0.54 km2) located on Rural Road 11, one and a half miles south of Alexandersville, and three miles (5 km) east of Miamisburg.
Fitzgerald was a director of the Merchants National Bank & Trust Company in Dayton for more than 50 years, and president of the Montgomery County Historical Society for 22 years. Although he was not a Dayton native, he enthusiastically led in helping to preserve many Dayton landmarks, notably Newcom Tavern and the Old Court House. During his presidency, a six million dollar bond was issued to build a new Court House with the condition that the Old Court House building be kept intact. The Court House later became the headquarters of the Historical Society. He oversaw the conservation of the Tavern and began deliberations about its relocation to Carillon Historical Park.
Roy Gerald Fitzgerald died in Dayton in 1962 after a long illness and is interred with his family at Woodland Cemetery, Dayton, Ohio.
