Robert J. Fitzwilliam

Fitzwilliam, Robert J.

Of Wellesley Hills, age 90, died on Friday, December 11, 2009 of complications of Parkinson's Disease.  Born and raised in Cleveland Heights, Ohio, he graduated from Yale University in 1940 and served in the U.S. Navy as an officer in World War II.  After earning his LLB from Yale Law School in 1946 he was chosen to clerk for Justice Thomas W. Swan of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the second circuit in New York City.  He then joined the Legal Department of the New York Life Insurance Company before coming to Boston in 1951 to the New England Mutual Life Insurance Company from which he retired as counsel in 1978.

In his retirement he served as a member of the Human Investigation Review Committee of the Tufts-New England Medical Center as well as on the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee of Northeastern University.  He belonged for many years to the Harvard Musical Association on Beacon Hill.

He leaves his wife, Margaret whom he married in 1943, a son John H. of Fitzwilliam, N.H. and a daughter Nancy H. Kieding of Norway, as well as five grandchildren and five great grandchildren. A son, James F. predeceased him.

He donated his remains to the Anatomical Gifts Program at Boston University Medical School and requested there be no memorial service. www.wm.f.spencerfuneralservice.com