Wirtz grew up in Sandwich, Illinois and began his teaching career at age 19.
The building was the original home of the NIU College of Business.
[1][2] Wirtz married Alfa Belle White and had three daughters, Marion, Frances and Kathryn, and two sons, Robert and William Willard.
His son W. Willard Wirtz went on to serve as the Secretary of Labor between 1962 and 1969 under John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B.
This biographical article relating to a college football coach first appointed in the 1910s is a stub.