Dean, College of Commerce and Finance and Professor, Department of Finance
1963
Bio:
Professor Fitzgerald received his Bachelor in Social Science from Wisconsin State College (1927), Master of Arts in Commerce from the University of Iowa (1930); his doctorate in economics from the University of Illinois (1938). While pursuing his doctorate he taught public utilities, transportation, corporate finance, money and banking, and economics at the University of Illinois.
Dr. Fitzgerald joined the University of Detroit faculty as associate professor and acting dean of the College of Commerce and Finance in 1935 and was appointed dean in 1939.
According to a Detroit Times February 28, 1950 newspaper article, “Some of the biggest names in Michigan’s business industry were added today to the ‘little Hoover’ commission preparing to study the state’s complex governmental structure.” The members, including Dr. Fitzgerald, were charged “to work on ways of streamlining Michigan’s government.”
A May 3, 1951 Detroit Times article noted “University of Detroit’s College of Commerce and Finance has been accepted to membership in the American Association of Collegiate Schools of Business, Dean Lloyd E. Fitzgerald announced today. Dean Fitzgerald pointed out that only 65 of 630 colleges and universities in the nation offering baccalaureate degree programs in business are full association members. He added that the University of Detroit along with the University of Michigan, was the only other college in Michigan accepted to full membership in the association.”
Another important committee to which Dr. Fitzgerald was a member was a “five-member committee of Michigan business education and research experts has been formed to study the role of additional research programs in boosting the state’s industrial growth….The group will make recommendation to the Economic Development Commission on research programs to find new industries for Michigan to provide information to help existing industries expand.”
In a letter dated May 16, 1963 from Fr. Laurence V. Britt, S.J., President, University of Detroit, Britt informed the university community that Dean Fitzgerald “will retire as Dean of the College of Commerce and Finance….Dean Fitzgerald, who will soon be completing his 27th consecutive year as Dean of the College, has long desired to be able to return to full-time teaching. This summer he has a Ford Foundation Fellowship for post-doctoral studies in Business Administration at the University of Indiana. He will return to the University of Detroit in September as Dean Emeritus and as Professor of Economics, on a full-time basis. As Dean of the College, Dr. Fitzgerald had the satisfaction of seeing the school awarded the highest possible accreditation, at both the graduate and undergraduate levels.”
Dr. Fitzgerald published widely in professional journals and held memberships in the American Economic Association, the Catholic Economic Association, the Economic Club of Detroit, Beta Alpha Psi, Phi Sigma Epsilon, Delta Sigma Pi fraternities and Beta Gamma Sigma, business honor society of which he served as president of the Michigan Beta Chapter.