Dr. Paul V. Fitzgerald

Paul V. Fitzgerald. Image Source: From News and Observer, May 3, 1943, p. 12.

Dr. Paul V. Fitzgerald, a Greenville dentist, was appointed to the ECTC board by Governor Clyde Roark Hoey (1877-1954) to succeed the late William J. Boyd (1873-1937) of Ayden. Dr. Fitzgerald served as a trustee from 1938 to 1945, coinciding with last years of the Great Depression, the campus visit of Mrs. Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1941 (which he participated in), the onset of WWII and resulting decline in male enrollment, and finally, the sensational trial and conviction of former ECTC president, Dr. Leon R. Meadows (1884-1953). During the latter, Dr. Fitzgerald was part of the pro-Meadows cohort, voting to exonerate him of any financial wrongdoing and in support of his firing of ECTC faculty he deemed disloyal. These votes prompted newly elected Governor Robert Greg Cherry (1891-1957), an outspoken critic of Meadows, to oversee, in 1945, a purge of pro-Meadows trustees by declining to reappoint, upon expiration of their terms, board members who had voted in favor of his exoneration and his firing of faculty members. Among those not reappointed was Dr. Fitzgerald.

Born in Johnston County, Dr. Fitzgerald attended the Turlington Institute in Smithfield before studying dentistry at Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri. He relocated to Greenville in 1914 after briefly practicing in Selma, N.C. and Lynchburg, Virginia. In 1917, Dr. Fitzgerald attained a degree of local fame and admiration after installing an “X-Ray machine” in his dental office at Five Points in Greenville. The machine was described by the Greenville Daily News as “the only one in the county and is fully equipped to do every kind of work that can be done with the wonderful X-Ray lights.” He retired from his practice in 1952.

Dr. Fitzgerald was a backer of Greenville’s Chautauqua events during WWI. He was also one of the local organizers of the War Bonds and War-Savings Stamps drives. Active in civic affairs, he served as the first president of the Local Production Credit Association and as a member of the Pitt County Board of Commissioners, 1928-1932, the Pitt County Medical and Dental Society, and the American Dental Association.

Dr. Fitzgerald invested in Greenville real estate on South Evans near the Tar River. His son, Dr. Paul Fitzgerald, Jr., also a dentist, later inherited them. In the 1960s, these properties were purchased and demolished as part of the Shoreline Redevelopment initiative that led to the creation of the Town Mall bordering the Tar River and First Street.

Sources

• “Appraisal reports for 109 and 111 N Pitt St. and 404 W. 1st St. and 1, 2, 3, and 4 Pitt Hill Dr, and 100 S. Evans St., Greenville, N.C.” East Carolina Manuscript Collection # 0674-b8-fq. J. Y. Joyner Library. East Carolina University. Greenville, N.C. https://digital.lib.ecu.edu/62484
• “Dental Society to Hear Number of Authorities.” News and Observer. May 3, 1943. P. 12.
• “Dentist Dies in Greenville.” News and Observer. June 22, 1957. P. 5.
• “Dentists Meet Next Month.” Durham Sun. April 22, 1943. Sect. 2, p. 1.
• “Dr. Fitzgerald Installs X-Ray Machine in His Dental Office.” Greenville Daily News. July 22, 1917. P. 5.
• “Dr. Paul Fitzgerald Named ECTC Trustee.” News and Observer. January 7, 1938. P. 15.
• “ECTC Board Member Passes During Holiday Vacation; Result of Long Illness.” Teco Echo. January 11, 1938. P. 1. https://digital.lib.ecu.edu/38064
• “ECTC Gets Five New Members.” Teco Echo. October 20, 1945. P. 1. https://digital.lib.ecu.edu/38106
• “First Lady Gets Welcome in Pitt: Mrs. Roosevelt Spends Busy Day at E.C.T.C. and in NYA Resident Center. News and Observer. November 18, 1941. Pp. 1, 2.
• “Greenville Man Heads Dentists: Dr. Fitzgerald Assumes Office at Greensboro Meet; Minges is President-Elect.” News and Observer. May 14, 1942. P. 13.
• “Pitt Med. Society Meets in Bethel.” Greenville News. September 10, 1921. P. 1.
• “Tomorrow Marks Opening of Greenville’s Big Chautauqua.” Greenville News. June 17, 1918. P. 1.
• Wilson, Leonard. “Jury Dismissed in Pitt and New Trial Planned: Judge Discharges Deadlocked Meadows Jury; Ten Favored Conviction.” News and Observer. March 24, 1945. Pp. 1, 3.

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