Edward Maurice Fitzpatrick – February 3, 1930 to January 22, 2023
Edward Maurice "Doats" Fitzpatrick was the only son of Edward Maurice Fitzpatrick, Sr., an orphan, and Anna Margaret Kisling, the first of her Russian-German family born in America. Doats grew up during the Great Depression with his half-brother, Leroy Specht, on Fresno's West Side, then a patchwork of immigrant and black neighborhoods, the memories of which he cherished his whole life. He was elected student body president of Edison High School in 1947, where he played football, basketball, baseball, and track, as well as trumpet in the school's dance band.

Doats knew at an early age he wanted to influence young lives as a coach and educator. He attended Fresno State College and then USC to obtain a master's degree in Physical Education. He served in the army from 1953 to 1955 and was stationed in Detroit. He returned home to teach and coach at Fort Miller Junior High School, then Edison High School, and then Tulare Joint Union High School. He spent the bulk of his career at Reedley College. In the 70s and 80s, he organized dozens of union locals in the south San Joaquin Valley for the American Federation of Teachers. He also developed an innovative exercise program for senior citizens which won him a commendation from then-President Jimmy Carter. Doats made many lifelong bonds with his students, some of whom visited to the very end.

Doats met his wife, M. Jule "Julie" Beaubier, while they were working for Fresno's parks and recreation department. They married in 1959 and embarked on their fifty-year marriage by going off to teach in the military dependent schools in Yokohama, Japan and Berlin, Germany. They brought back many pieces of furniture and art which they enjoyed in their Fresno house and the home they built outside Paso Robles. Doats was interested in ecological building, especially adobe brick making, which he put to good use in remodeling their properties and in the restoration of Mission San Miguel.

Doats will be remembered as a charismatic, complex, fearless, and inspiring teacher, coach, mentor, husband, and father. He loved a cold draft, big band music, classic movies, talking politics and a good basketball game, enjoyed with family, friends, and his dogs.

Doats is preceded in death by his parents, his half-brother, and his wife. He is survived by his three children, Jodi Fitzpatrick and husband, Marc Kerkochian, Jay Fitzpatrick, and Beau Fitzpatrick and wife, Kimberly, and three grandchildren, Jack, Julia, and Benjamin.

The family thanks Richard Morris and John Campbell for their involvement with Doats in his later years.

Remembrance donations may be sent to: State Center Community College Foundation, 1171 Fulton Street, 2 nd Floor, Fresno, CA 93721 – ATTN: M. Jule Beaubier Fitzpatrick Memorial Scholarship for Women in Building.