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"A local woman religious, a sister of Saint Joseph, summed up the essence of Jack Fitzgerald with these words – he is very prudent, and at the same time very caring and patient, and especially sensitive to the marginalized mentally ill, the addicted, and the emotionally stressed. Jack Fitzgerald, you have done much with the talents God gave you!" Words of recognition spoken upon his being Presented with the Saint Thomas More Medal By Bishop Timothy A. McDonnell on September 29, 2013
JOHN R. FITZGERALD, MSW
Mr. Fitzgerald is a native of Springfield where he attended local parochial schools, graduating from Cathedral High School. He is presently a parishioner at Saint Cecilia Church in Wilbraham. He received his undergraduate degree from The Passionist Monastic Seminary in Jamaica, New York. He completed his graduate studies at Boston College, receiving a master’s degree in social work in 1969.
Mr. Fitzgerald began his professional career in the Department of Psychiatry of Baystate Medical Center where he spent six years. He spent the next twenty-four years in private practice as a psychiatric social worker. In 1998, Jack Fitzgerald joined the Hampden County Sheriff’s Department as Clinical Director. In that role he was responsible for the clinical and professional development of the counseling staff. In 2000, he assumed administrative responsibility for the Day Reporting and After Incarceration Support Systems of the Sheriff’s Department. In that capacity, Jack serves as an Assistant Superintendent with responsibility for the Community Safety Center within the Sheriff’s Department.
In 2009, Mr. Fitzgerald was honored with the inauguration of the annual John “Jack” Fitzgerald Clinical Excellence Award at the Sheriff’s Department. In the same year, he was honored by the statewide Corrections Association of Massachusetts with its Jim Justice Professional Excellence Award.
Aside from these accomplishments in his secular career, Jack Fitzgerald considered it a privilege when he was asked to teach a class in Biblical Theology and the Hebrew Scriptures to candidates for the permanent diaconate in this Diocese, drawing on his formal education in Theology begun many years ago as a candidate for the priesthood within the Passionist religious congregation. He also led adult Bible study classes at the former Saint Mary of the Assumption Parish in Ludlow.
Jack and his wife, Alice, are the proud parents of three grown children and have one granddaughter.
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