University & Navy Years
Chicago: An Intellectual Feast
hen Ned arrived at University of Chicago, he found himself in a city roiled by crime, desperation, and the Great Depression. Mob gangsters preyed on citizens; the FBI gunned down Public Enemy #1 John Dillinger. Months later, gangster Baby Face Nelson met the same fate. Waves of immigrants and African-Americans were pouring in, seeking better lives but ending up in slums. The Union Stockyards went up in flames—again. [1, 2]
Chicago was nothing like pastoral Oklahoma.
Even so, it was a time of social ferment that inspired immense intellectual discourse and creativity. The year before Ned came, the Chicago World’s Fair: A Century of Progress fueled optimism for the future. [1, 2] When Ned landed there in 1934, the University of Chicago (UC) was an academic powerhouse and the first major university in the nation to enroll women on an equal basis with men. [3]
Ned was invigorated by UC’s game-changing Common Core curriculum, pioneered by Robert Maynard Hutchins in the 1920s. Instead of the traditional method of rote memorization, UC teachers used the Socratic method. [5] The professor and students probed and discussed the flaws and strengths of particular beliefs and societal issues. As they worked their way toward best consensus, contentious discussions and even arguments erupted, but critical thinking skills were honed. [3, 4] Ned was intrigued.
Ned was so invigorated by these teaching methods that he was deemed a Robert Maynard Hutchins Scholar, awarded to the top ten percent of students at the end of their second year. [6] The Socratic Method became the foundation of how Ned inspired others to join his causes.
Free Speech & Community
he Common Core curriculum served as a perfect complement for UC’s sociology department, where Ned spent ample class time earning his bachelor’s degree in social science—a choice arising from his influences in Tulsa schools who exhorted the need to engender good citizenry. The department, the nation’s first, arose from the famed “Chicago school” in sociology of thought that elevated social infrastructure and urban ecology over genetics as determining factors in human behavior—a resounding rebuke to the theory of eugenics in favor at the time. [4, 7, 8]
UC’s sociology department was profoundly shaped by Robert E. Park’s work in urban sociology and given scientific heft by Evelyn Kitagawa’s demography research. With Chicago as its unceasing laboratory, students studied the roles that politics, economics, gender, sexuality, race, and ethnicity played in how human society functions. [4, 7, 8]
Ned’s social science studies jived well with being a member of Phi Kappa Psi, a fraternity emphasizing integrity, intellect, and service to the community [9]. Yet Phi Kappa Psi would not permit Black or Jewish students to join, a policy Ned resisted. He decided early on to become a lawyer, suitable to his lifelong desire to avenge injustices, and followed a pre-law course track. Being active with the Junior Bar Association further deepened his community involvement. [6]
All the while, he says, he stuck with the system; his ability to confront and agitate remained within the establishment’s bounds; he became an infighter. He fought and succeeded in opening the doors of his fraternity to Jews but fell short of getting a Black admitted. –John Yemma, Nature’s Angry Advocate, Dallas Morning News’ Scene magazine [12]
UC’s sociology department produced minds that shifted paradigms. One of them was Saul Alinsky, an archeology major and criminologist who became a foe of slumlords, robber barons, and industrial magnates. He systematized methods for motivating people who considered themselves powerless into a powerful force. One key of Alinsky’s approach was collective action that went beyond rallies. [10]
Alinsky stepped away from his job at UC’s Institute for Juvenile Research in 1938 to become a full-time social-justice activist, eventually codifying his work into Rules for Radicals: A Pragmatic Primer (1971). [10] Ned avidly absorbed Alinsky’s political theory and admired his commitment to a cause.
At the University of Chicago, I had a goal: to make enough money to enable me to dedicate the rest of my life to service. I have managed to do that. [10]
With UC’s Common Core and his sociology major, his dedication to good citizenry, and a love of debate, it was no wonder Ned became president of the UC Political Union, a student-run organization determined to elevate political discourse into the realm of ideas. In true Socratic fashion, Ned brought in a diverse array of speakers, even fascist and communist speakers in spite of his personal views being stridently opposed to totalitarianism. The irony of featuring authoritarians who relied on free-speech suppression to rule at a free-speech event was not lost on Ned. [6, 11]
He even had a Nazi come speak to make sure students were getting all views. He liked getting involved in political actions, and he was very interested in politics. – Genie Fritz [11]
Few knew Ned’s struggle behind the scenes. He did not share his father Ed’s conservative views, nor was he willing to become a businessman as Ed wished. At a lunch in Chicago shortly before graduating from UC, his father informed him there’d be no further family financial support for pursuing a law degree. Even though Ned pursued scholarships to underwrite much of his education, he’d have to work to cover his food and lodgings while studying full-time.
Becoming a Lawyer—Briefly
Ned with his mother Ethel in 1938.
pon completing his bachelor’s degree from UC in 1938, Ned moved on to its law school. To carry on with less support, he took an overnight shift at the campus hospital and waited tables during the day, occasionally working as an usher at the Chicago Civic Opera. At times he got only two hours of sleep a night and often subsisted on cheap chili. A case of flu laid him so low he ended up as a hospital patient where he worked.
His parents’ move from Oklahoma to Dallas in 1939 presented new opportunities. A booming business climate in Dallas meant more opportunities for lawyers, and his sister Eleanor was a Southern Methodist University (SMU) student. He applied to SMU’s law school, now called the Dedman School of Law, whose dean, Charles Shirley Potts, took a liking to the scrappy lawyer-to-be. He awarded Ned a scholarship based on the initial interview even before his transcript had a chance to arrive, then found him a job at the law school library. A bonus: Ned could get free room and board by living at his parents’ home. [6]
Amid intense studies, Ned made lifelong friends with fellow students such as Harvey L. Davis, who later served as a law professor at Dedman for 31 years, and Charles Gavin, who became the law school dean. The well-connected Ned quickly found employment after his 1940 graduation at the law office of SMU grad (’19) Paul Carrington, Sr. Paid only when he’d won a case, he nonetheless was a full-time lawyer right out of college. [6]
He was brand new, yet they sent him on different things. Ned was very persuasive. – Genie Fritz [11]
On December 7, 1941, while parked outside a drugstore sipping a milkshake, Ned heard the news of Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor. It infuriated him. Although he was just beginning a law career, he was certain where his duty lay. His passion for democracy was as significant as his abhorrence of authoritarian regimes. [6] When asked why he wanted to enlist in the Navy, he replied, “To help protect democracy.” [13]
Getting Pilots Off the Ground
Ned as a US Navy Cadet in 1942.
y January ’42, Ned was in the Navy, where he quickly qualified for pilot training at Naval Air Station Dallas, also called Hensley Field. Ned deemed flying to be “challenging, thrilling.” Radar fascinated him, and he hoped for an overseas assignment in that field. But noting his facile ease in educating and motivating others, the Navy assigned him to be an aviation education officer. [6. 11]
Navy training biplane, NAS Corpus Christi, 1943. USN, Public domain.
Stationed at Naval Air Station Corpus Christi by March, Ned was injured and required surgery after a flying instructor crashed their biplane into the Gulf of Mexico. [13] While stationed in Corpus Christi, he began instructing pilots there and at nearby auxiliary bases for reconnaissance and bombing raids in Europe and the Pacific. [6] Just as he did growing up in Oklahoma, he found respite in nature at the beautiful coast and abundant bird life near the bases. [13]
Bush in Grumman Avenger aboard USS San Jacinto, 1944. USN, public domain.
Ned’s most famous student was future president George H.W. Bush. Training the future leader of America earned him an extensive mention in Flight of the Avenger: George Bush at War by Joe Hyams. [13] Ned’s instructor notes mentioned that Bush tended to favor his right wing, causing it to dip—a notation that later provoked endless jokes by pundits.
Student serious and learns well. Has difficulty in maintaining altitude. Tends to make all turns in a slight skid. Took off several times with right wing low. Judged his first emergency well. Did not have the knack of setting three wheels on the ground at the same time. Bounced on his takeoffs. Safe for solo… Bush is an upstanding lad with great self-confidence. It appears, however, that he may be somewhat eccentric. – Ned’s student report of George H.W. Bush [15]
Ned would later appeal to Bush for help in his Big Thicket advocacy. But first, the comment about eccentricity had to be discussed. He endured Bush’s gentle ribbing with good humor. [14]
Consolidated PBY, 1944. No known copyright restrictions via Flickr Commons.
Transferred from Corpus Christi to San Diego Naval Air Station in 1944, Ned continued to train pilots for crucial World War II operations. The following year brought another transfer to Whidbey Island near Seattle, this time to be a pilot of the PBY reconnaissance bomber in a planned invasion of mainland Japan. Before he saw active duty, the war was over. Ned was discharged from the Navy in September 1945. [6, 11]
Next Chapter: Courtship & Marriage
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TEXT READERS for THIS SECTION:
Judy Gaskell and Eileen McKee of the Fritz family, plus Mary Guthrie, Katelyn Reeves, Susie Stillwell, and Steve Wilson.
Steve Wilson.
ENDNOTES
[1] Wikipedia: Chicago in the 1930s
[2] Chicagology: Notorious Chicago
[3] History of the University of Chicago
[4] New World Encyclopedia: University of Chicago
[5] Socratic method, Wikipedia
[6] Ned Fritz’s personal autobiographical writings provided by the family.
[7] Chicago in the 1920s and 1930s: the view from the Chicago School (the Social Science Research Committee maps)
[8] Wikipedia: Chicago school (sociology)
[9] Phi Kappa Psi
[10] Wikipedia: Saul Alinsky
[11] My Life with Ned Fritz, by Eugenia Fritz.
[12] Nature’s Angry Advocate, by John Yemma; Dallas Morning News Scene magazine, Dec. 8, 1978
[13] Questionnaire for Former Cadets & Aviators at CCNAS; Edward C. Fritz Archives, SMU
[14] Personal correspondence between Ned and George H.W. Bush; Edward C. Fritz Archives, Fondren Library, SMU
[15] Fritz vs. the Feds
