Paul E. Fitzgerald and his wife, Lee Davis Fitzgerald, who have been residents of Botetourt County since 1963 and are former owners and publishers of this newspaper (1963-1984), celebrated his 93rd birthday November 26 with an announcement that they have been informed by the John Hay Library at prestigious Brown University in Providence, R.I., that he is being honored with creation of The Paul E. Fitzgerald Memorial Collection of Will Eisner Military Art. Peter Harrington, the curator, stated in the announcement that Fitzgerald’s collection “should include a copy of the most important and extensive work on Eisner and ‘PS Magazine’ – your own book, ‘Will Eisner and PS Magazine,’ and other related working papers and material.”
Will Eisner is known as the creator of “The Spirit” comic strip, and, following his “Contract with God” trilogy, as “a grandfather of the graphic novel.”
The U.S. Army’s “PS Magazine” was a hip-pocket-sized comic-style publication (now totally online) and Fitzgerald was its first managing editor, 1953-1963, during which Eisner was the publication’s creative and production contractor. The small monthly continues to be internationally famous as a successful pioneer in the use of sequential art (comics) to communicate technical and motivational information. The 10 years of close professional interface between the two men resulted in a friendship that continued until Eisner’ death, shortly after the turn of the millennium.
When Fitzgerald left the Army publication, he and his wife, the former Lee Davis, of Wheeling, W.Va., with her in 1963 became principle stockholders for 21 years of the publishing group of three award-winning community newspapers in this area: “The Fincastle Herald”, “The Vinton Messenger” and “The New Castle Record.” She was managing editor of “The “Herald.”
After they sold their newspaper interests in 1984, he began a new career as a public relations consultant for churches in the Washington, D.C. area. He served two elected terms as president of The Religious Public Relations Council of Washington, D.C. In 1988, he won the Public Relations Society of America’s highest annual award, the Silver Anvil, for institutional programs for the historic landmark National City Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) on Thomas Circle in downtown Washington.
In 1986, at the age of 60, he was recruited by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, where he served until 1994, retiring as Chief of Communication Services.
The Fitzgeralds met and married in 1950 when both were students at West Virginia University’s School of Journalism. In 1951, when he became managing editor and she became news editor of the weekly “Cecil (County) Whig,” they moved to Elkton, Md. Later, when he was ejected from a routine meeting of the Elkton Town Council, he lit a journalistic fuse that is credited with leading to Maryland’s first Open Meetings Law— a matter that the Fitzgeralds had discussed previously with Gov. Theodore R. McKeldin during a walking inspection of the Chesapeake Bay Bridge while it was under construction.
They were joined in the birthday celebration by their two sons, Dr. Patrick L. Fitzgerald of Portland, Ore., and Clay O. Fitzgerald and wife, Juanita, of Fincastle, and daughter, Kathleen Fitzgerald and her husband, Robert Early Lee, of Greensboro, N.C.
