Fitts received a Bachelor of Arts from Harvard College in 1975 and a Juris Doctor from Yale Law School in 1979.
[3] Fitts served as a clerk for federal judge and civil rights advocate Leon Higginbotham, who became a mentor to him.
[6] Fitts has initiated a campus master planning process redesigned to promote connections.
[7][8] William T. Fitts, Jr. also served in World War II as a surgical ward officer in the University of Pennsylvania's 20th General Hospital in the China-Burma-India Theatre.
[8] Michael Fitts's' maternal grandfather, Joseph H. Willits, was a professor and dean of the Wharton School.