William "Fitz" Fitz-Gibbon, a North Hollywood science teacher credited with launching the most successful middle-school curriculum in the country, has died. He was 77.
Fitz-Gibbon died Monday at his daughter's home in Brentwood of complications from colon cancer surgery.
"He was loved by his students," said his sister, Jane Fitz-Gibbon McKenna of Redding. "Even in retirement, he inspired students who graduated from Yale, MIT and Stanford.
"He made kids think they could do math and science, particularly the girls."
Dubbed "Fitz" by generations of students at Walter Reed Middle School in North Hollywood, the science-and-math (sic.) pendant was known for teaching generations of academic superstars.
In 1971, he founded the Individualized Honors Program to teach college-level math and science. He also founded the nation's only known middle school with an Advanced Placement physics course.
His science and math whizzes won top awards across the state and nation, outscoring even top high school students. He was even written up in Time magazine in 1985.
His prescription: teaching excellence, bright kids and parental backing. And tough studies about the fundamental foundations of the universe. His seventh-graders were assigned "The Double Helix," about the discovery of DNA.
"More work, less talk," read a needlepoint at the back of his class.
"Really, these kids enjoy doing," Fitz-Gibbon told the Daily News just before retiring in 2003. "Why can't they enjoy studying physics as much as playing video games. Is it right to let these kids move ahead?
"I feel strongly, yes."
William Marty Fitz-Gibbon was born on Aug. 19, 1934, to Paul and Katherine Verena Marty Fitz-Gibbon, in Cleveland.
After graduating from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, he spent a summer in Louisiana searching for oil. But the man with an IQ of 180 felt he could contribute more to the world by cultivating young minds, and chose teaching.
He loved classical music, British mysteries and tennis.
Fitz-Gibbon is survived by his wife Deborah, of Brentwood; son Keir, of England; daughter Sorel, of Brentwood; brother Paul, of Rancho Santa Margarita; three sisters, Carol Fitz-Gibbon Showalter, of Wisconsin, Susan Fitz-Gibbon Winton, of Illinois, and Jane Fitz-Gibbon McKenna, of Redding; and seven grandchildren.
Arrangements are being made by Westwood Memorial Park. Funeral services are pending.
dana.bartholomew@dailynews.com
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