Max Marlin Fitzwater (born November 24, 1942) is an American writer-journalist who served as White House Press Secretary for six years under U.S. Presidents Ronald Reagan and George H. W. Bush, making him one of the longest-serving press secretaries in history.

Fitzwater was born in a Salina, Kansas hospital; his family's farm was in Dickinson County.

While in school, he worked at newspapers (Lindsborg News Record, Abilene Reflector-Chronicle, Manhattan Mercury, and Topeka Capital Journal) in various Kansas communities before moving to Washington, D.C. upon graduation.

He was the spokesman who explained the toxic waste disposal problem in America and developed the public information activities related to disaster sites like Love Canal in New York State.

When Mikhail Gorbachev first visited the United States, in Reagan's first term, Fitzwater gave joint press briefings with his Soviet counterpart.

In 2002, he founded the Marlin Fitzwater Center for Communication at Franklin Pierce University in Rindge, New Hampshire.