If there was a place Cecil Fitzgerald was truly happy, it was most likely far offshore, aboard a boat with a fishing line in the water.

“We really enjoyed boating and fishing,” said Mr. Fitzgerald’s wife of 63 years, Mary Lou Fitzgerald. “That was one of the main things we did.”

Cecil H. Fitzgerald of Greensburg died Sunday, Feb. 24, 2019. He was 87.

Mr. Fitzgerald was born July 22, 1931, in New Kensington, a son of the late Cecil H. Fitzgerald Sr. and Thelma Pritchard Fitzgerald.

He grew up in New Kensington and graduated from the former New Kensington High School.

Mr. Fitzgerald was drafted into the Army and stationed in France during the Korean War, and after returning home, married Mary Lou on Aug. 20, 1955.

“He started an apprenticeship with Alcoa, and I was a secretary there. That’s how we met,” his wife said.

Mr. Fitzgerald worked most of his career at West Penn Power. He became a manager, “which meant you got moved around a lot when you were sent to different divisions. We lived a lot of different places,” his wife said.

He was a member of First United Methodist Church in Greensburg as well as the Philanthropy Masonic Lodge 225.

In his free time, Mr. Fitzgerald could usually be found fishing.

“We started up in Presque Isle and Erie, until we found a condo in Ocean City, Md.,” his wife said.

Mr. Fitzgerald and his family also made an annual trip to Las Vegas to visit relatives.

“My sister is in Las Vegas,” his wife said. “We’d take a month to go out and visit them. We always drove until the past few years when we started flying. But we’d drive out and stop at a bunch of places along the way. Our kids got to see the Painted Desert, the Grand Canyon and places like that.”

Mary Lou said her husband was friendly and outgoing.

“He was a wonderful dad and a very professional person — he was a manager, and he always dressed the part,” she said.

Mr. Fitzgerald is survived by his wife, Mary Lou (Gearhart) Fitzgerald; three children, Gary Fitzgerald, Cheryl Bookheimer and Janice Williamson; seven grandchildren; and four great-grandchildren.

A funeral service will be at 10:30 a.m. Thursday at Kepple-Graft Funeral Home, 524 N. Main St., Greensburg. Entombment will follow in West­moreland County Memorial Park.

Memorial donations can be made to the American Cancer Society at Cancer.org.

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