[2] His father died of a heart attack when Fitzsimmons was 17 years old, and Frank dropped out of high school to support his family by working in an automobile hardware store.

[2] During this time, Fitzsimmons became known as "a figure of ridicule" in the Teamsters;[1] he was inarticulate, chubby, passive and easily embarrassed, and Hoffa and others frequently had him make coffee or hold chairs and rarely gave him any authority or duties.

[9] On February 28, 1967, the Teamsters executive board passed a resolution appointing Fitzsimmons "acting president" if Hoffa was no longer able to carry out his duties.

Indeed, few other Teamster big wigs even pretend that the chunky, amiable Hoffa right bower has the capacity to hold the union together for long.

[14] Although the pact expired and the union struck for three days, Fitzsimmons was able to negotiate a new agreement, with a federal mediator's help, that some believed was richer than any Hoffa could have obtained.

[13][17][18] He defeated an executive-board attempt to oust him in July and followed it up by demoting Hoffa aides and promoting his own supporters (including Weldon Mathis) to high positions in the union.

Department of Justice and White House officials, Hoffa's release was granted on the condition that he not participate directly or indirectly in union activities until 1980.

[4][41] Hoffa intended to publish a book accusing Fitzsimmons of "selling out to mobsters" and giving large low- and no-interest loans from Teamsters pension funds to mob-related businesses.

[46] However, the strike ended after just three days, and union members ratified a contract that included a cost of living adjustment and a 30 percent rise in wages over three years.

[50]Delegates to the convention were not persuaded by the attacks on the union leadership and voted Fitzsimmons a 17 percent pay raise, which brought his salary to $516,250 a year ($2.8 million today), and they re-elected him to a second full term.

[54] Although the Internal Revenue Service revoked the fund's non-profit status, the penalty was suspended after Fitzsimmons agreed to remove several trustees, which he did in September 1976.

[55] Fitzsimmons and Roy Lee Williams, the director of the Central Conference of Teamsters, attempted to remain on the board, but were forced out in March 1977.

[59] Fitzsimmons gambled and decided to engage in a series of whipsaw strikes to pressure the employers to agree to terms, but the trucking companies responded with a lockout on April 2.

[61] Four days into the labor dispute, layoffs in the automobile manufacturing industry reached 100,000, which put pressure on Fitzsimmons to lower his contract demands.

[62] The strike and the lockout were short because of those pressures, and Fitzsimmons reached on April 11, 1979, an agreement that met Carter's wage-control guideline.

[63] After suffering shortness of breath at a Teamsters executive board meeting, Fitzsimmons underwent surgery in late December 1979 which removed a non-malignant tumor in his bronchial passage.

[67] Although he returned to work in mid-March, he was so ill by early April that many felt he might not attend the union's executive board meeting later that month.

[67] Deregulation had led to fierce competition and lower rates in the industry, and several trucking companies let it be known that they would not pay the wage and benefit increases Fitzsimmons had negotiated two years before.

[67] Before entering the hospital again in late March, Fitzsimmons wrote a letter to the employers demanding that they adhere to the contract.

[1] Four mourners attended his private funeral mass at Sacred Heart Roman Catholic Church in Palm Desert, California.