January 2013
Written by Vince Frieden, Associate Director, University Advancement Communications
Throughout a colorful and enjoyable life’s journey—more than 50 years of which were spent as a student, faculty member and staff member at Miami University—Donald W. Fritz ’56, Ph.D., has known two very different faces of humanity.
As a student of literature, a professor of medieval British literature, a director of graduate studies for the English department and a past director of The Performing Arts Series at Miami, Fritz knows well the uplifting cultural beauty that can be stirred by the human spirit.
But as a gay man coming of age during a time when such things were not to be spoken of, Fritz also has known the cruel bite of human intolerance, prejudice and ignorance.
Though the ups and downs have been many, Fritz remains grateful—grateful for life’s opportunities, grateful for the kind gestures and fond memories that define his five decades at Miami, and perhaps most of all, grateful for progress ... that persistent, unstoppable march by humanity toward a better day.
Through a recent $300,000 commitment, Fritz is both lending his support to Miami and looking toward that better day. The Donald W. Fritz Professorship will support a full-time faculty member at Miami who seeks to enlighten and educate on issues faced by disenfranchised or marginalized populations.
“I was shaped and influenced by faculty members when I was a student, and I’m still in communication with a number of my own students,” Fritz said. “Creating a professorship seemed an ideal way of both supporting faculty and empowering the University’s efforts to improve the well-being of disenfranchised or marginalized persons.”
After his Miami graduation, Fritz’ life began an eclectic series of twists and turns. The Army carried him to Germany and gave him an opportunity as personnel manager of the Seventh Army Symphony Orchestra. While an instructor at Southern Methodist University, he spent a month in Mexico City tutoring the then-Mexican Secretary of Labor.
He earned his master’s from Miami and a doctorate in Medieval British literature from Stanford University. In the process, he earned a Leverhulme Fellowship, which enabled him to study and write his dissertation in London.
In 1968, Fritz returned to the English department at Miami, where he helped inaugurate the medieval studies program. During his 30-year faculty tenure, he served as director of the graduate program, chair of the university awards and recognition committee, chair of the art museum development committee and as a member of the art museum acquisition committee.
Fritz was appointed director of The Performing Arts Series in 1982, and over the next 15 years, built a nationally acclaimed series that attracted internationally renowned artists, orchestras, ballets, operas and more while also promoting young artists.
“I’ve enjoyed many good turns of fortune in my life that helped lay the foundation for opportunities down the road,” Fritz said. “Miami afforded me many of those privileges and opportunities, not the least of which was a fine education.”
Despite all this, he retired from Miami in 1998 with mixed feelings. While the University had given him much for which to be thankful, it also had brought him into contact with some whose prejudices and naivety translated into derogatory and patronizing remarks and actions that slowed acceptance, not only of gays but of other underrepresented communities at Miami.
Fritz was drawn back into the fold in 2008 when he joined Miami’s 1809 LGBT Alumni Board of Directors. During a discussion with President David Hodge later that year, Fritz saw first-hand the progress in the University’s support of minority groups, which had been progressing since the early 1990s. In reflecting on his own long and storied relationship with Miami, Fritz recognized his responsibility to show leadership in that larger effort.
“My connection with Miami as a student and as a faculty member spanned more than 25 percent of the University’s history,” Fritz said. “Now I and so many others have the opportunity to help inspire a new chapter of that history. I am proud to support President Hodge’s vision and to help promote a just and accepting environment that welcomes and embraces all Miami students, faculty and staff.”
This story was featured in Giving Tribute Fall 2012.