Resources:
  • STUDENTS
  • ALUMNI
  • FACULTY
  • STAFF
  • LIBRARY
Cooley Law School
MENU
  • ABOUT
      • Mission, Values, and Vision
      • Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion
      • Home of the National Legal Mentoring Consortium
      • Commitment to Social Justice and Access
      • Leadership & Administration
      • Blog
      • Campus Locations
      • Title IX and Campus Safety
      • Media Requests
      • Consumer Information
      • Jobs
  • J.D.
      • J.D. Program
      • Prospective Students
      • Apply Now
      • Tuition & Financial Aid
      • Scholarships
      • FAQ
      • Contact Admissions
      • Campus Locations
      • Course Catalog
      • Schedule Options
      • Study Abroad
      • Our Student Body
      • Academic Calendar
  • LL.M.
      • LL.M. Programs
      • Apply Now
      • Tuition & Financial Aid
      • Scholarships
      • FAQ
      • Contact Admissions
      • Corporate Law & Finance
      • Tax Law
      • Homeland & National Security
      • Joint Degree (J.D./LL.M.)
      • U.S. Legal Studies for Foreign Attorneys
  • EXPERIENTIAL LEARNING
      • Social Justice Clinics
      • Community Service Clinics
      • Externships
      • Simulation Courses
      • Competitions
  • MAKE A GIFT
      • Giving Tuesday 2021
      • Annual Fund
      • DEI Champions
      • Merit Scholarship Fund
      • Planned Giving
      • Cooley Society Membership
      • Donor Honor Roll
  • LIBRARY

Search

A Life of Service in the Law

Remembering John W. Fitzgerald 

July 7th marks the 14th anniversary of the passing of Justice John W. Fitzgerald (1924-2006). He was the favorite son of Grand Ledge MI who rose to become Chief Justice of the Michigan Supreme Court while playing an instrumental role in the life of WMU-Cooley Law School.

The Fitzgeralds were the first family of Grand Ledge. John’s grandfather represented the area in the Michigan legislature. His father was twice elected the state’s governor. The town’s unofficial “Governor’s Mansion” was John’s home from age 11 until his death at 81.

After serving in World War II, John earned a law degree from the University of Michigan Law School. Returning home, he opened a small-town law practice a half-block off the town’s main street.

THE COURT YEARS

Soon John too was elected to the legislature and later, in 1964, to the new Michigan Court of Appeals. Nine years later Governor William Milliken appointed Fitzgerald to the Michigan Supreme Court. He replaced Justice Tom Brennan, who had resigned to be Dean of the fledgling Thomas M. Cooley Law School.

A little-known fact: In running to retain his seat on the high court, Fitzgerald was the only candidate before or since to decline all campaign contributions from lawyers. He felt they posed the appearance of a conflict of interest in the public’s mind. He told oral historian Roger Lane he hoped that the loss of funding would be offset by an increase in voter approval. But it turned out to be a one-day news story that failed to create a ripple.

Fitzgerald became Chief Justice in 1982. He served one year in the office and then retired from the court.

1972 WMU-Cooley first faculty

THE COOLEY CONNECTION

Fitzgerald’s involvement with Cooley spanned nearly 35 years. He was one of the school’s original incorporators in 1972 and served as its first vice president. He is best known for teaching the very first law school class (Property I) in January 1973. Upon his appointment to the Supreme Court, Fitzgerald resigned from the school’s board of directors but continued to teach Property-related elective courses as an adjunct professor. 

At Justice Fitzgerald’s Supreme Court investiture, Dean Brennan revealed that student evaluations of Fitzgerald’s first year of teaching Property were “an almost unbelievable 9.71” on a 10-point scale.

On leaving the judiciary, “Judge Fitz” (as we knew him) became a member of the full-time faculty. He remained associated with the law school at the time of his death. The Fitzgerald Class, which entered in September 2002 and graduated in September 2006, is named for him.

Judge Fitz embraced the law fully; writing it, interpreting it, and maybe most of all, teaching it. His judicial opinions were models of clarity and readability—and influential. During the span of his judicial career, his opinions were reprinted as leading opinions in American Law Reports (ALR) more often than any other Michigan jurist.

LOVE FOR THE LAW

At the presentation of Fitzgerald’s official Supreme Court portrait in 1994, Justice Charles Levin, his colleague on both the Court of Appeals and Supreme Court, said this: “John W. Fitzgerald loves the law, and there is an especially soft place in his heart for property law, which he now teaches along with other courses at the Thomas M. Cooley Law School. I think my friend Fitz may very well have left this Court to find a more congenial place. A place where the common law is spoken of on a daily basis, and where he can instruct future generations of lawyers in the common-law tradition. I hope and believe he has found what he was looking for.”

Speaking at the same ceremony, Associate Dean Helen Pratt Mickens said of her colleague: “He lives by a quotation [from Chaucer] that it’s reported he put on the blackboard that very first night the first Thomas Cooley Law School class met in 1973: ‘The lyf so short, the craft so long to lerne.’”

An example of Fitzgerald’s humility (and humor) can be found in his 1993 address to the Michigan Supreme Court Historical Society. There he expressed the wish that he could tell Justice Cooley about his dissent in the controversial Poletown case, found in every law school Property casebook: “He might reply, ‘Well done.’ On the other hand, he might say, ‘How did you miss the point so completely.’”

As lawmaker, judge and teacher, Judge Fitz was beloved by all who knew him.


Distinguished Professor Emeritus Otto Stockmeyer became the judge’s first law clerk upon Fitzgerald’s election to the Court of Appeals. Fitzgerald presented him and every succeeding law clerk with a plaque displaying Chaucer’s quotation as a remembrance of their service.

More Blogs By Professor Stockmeyer

Tags: Legal Education, WMU-Cooley Faculty, Faculty Experts
Back to Blog
  • Tweet

Related Articles

Melanie White: Bring Hope to Light and Justice to Those Needing Protection

Melanie White has always had an interest in equal justice for all. After learning that her mother...
Read More

Ruth Bader Ginsburg's Death Means Far More Than Many Truly Understand

Blog author, Constitutional Law expert and WMU-Cooley Professor Brendan Beery gives his legal...
Read More

What Should Be Done About Michigan's No-Good, Very Bad Way of Selecting Supreme Court Justices?

THE PAST The "Looking Back: 1930s" article in the January 2022 Michigan Bar Journal concludes by...
Read More

Subscribe to Email Updates

Recent Posts

Posts by Topic

  • WMU-Cooley Faculty (118)
  • WMU-Cooley Alumni (110)
  • Legal Education (75)
  • WMU-Cooley Students (56)
  • Faculty Experts (48)
  • Tampa Bay Campus (24)
  • Diversity (18)
  • From Where I Stand (18)
  • Awards (13)
  • Military Students (11)
  • Study Abroad (11)
  • Innocence Project (10)
  • Plain language (8)
  • Multicultural Lawyering (6)
  • Weekend Program (6)
  • Lansing Campus (4)
  • Legal Ethics (4)
  • Bar Exam Advice (3)
  • Externships (3)
  • International Law Faculty Experts (3)
  • Resiliency (3)
  • Equal Access to Justice (2)
  • Kimberly O'Leary (2)
  • online learning (2)
  • Continuous Improvement (1)
  • Homeland & National Security Law Review (1)
  • LL.M. (1)
  • LSAT Prep (1)
  • Library Blog Series (1)
  • Service & Integrity (1)
  • WMU-Cooley Career Office (1)
see all
Western Michigan University Cooley Law School

CONTACT
WMU-Cooley Law School
300 South Capitol Avenue
Lansing, Michigan 48933 
(517) 371-5140

Contact Us

Contact Admissions

Read Our Blog

Full Sitemap

Get Adobe Acrobat Reader

Consumer Information

In corde hominum est anima legis.

Western Michigan University Thomas M. Cooley Law School is an independent, private, non-profit educational institution affiliated with Western Michigan University. The affiliation between WMU and WMU-Cooley, which are legally and financially independent institutions, will end on or before November 5, 2023. As an independent institution, the Law School is solely responsible for its academic program. Accredited by the American Bar Association and the Higher Learning Commission. 

Read non-discrimination policy

If you encounter accessibility barriers while on our website, please notify our Accessibility Office using the Inaccessible Content Notification Form.

© 2022 Cooley Law School
Designed By InVerve Marketing