[1] FitzGerald was born in 1899 in Lawrence, Massachusetts,[2] and graduated from Boston College High School in 1917.

[3] He then attended Boston College for a year, before entering the Society of Jesus; he was ordained in June 1931.

[4] He held faculty positions at Boston College and College of the Holy Cross before being selected as president of Fairfield University in September 1951.

[4][5] During FitzGerald's seven-year tenure as president of Fairfield University, the first class of the university graduated in 1951 and the university was admitted to fully accredited membership in the New England Association of Colleges and Secondary Schools (NEASC).

[4] After his tenure as Fairfield University president, FitzGerald was regional director of Jesuit high schools for four years.