A Tribute to Paul Pitz ’42
By Marylynne Pitz Staff Writer, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Seven months after Paul Pitz’s death in March of 1999, the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra dedicated one of its concerts to honor the insurance executive’s contributions. At a reception after the concert, Bob Anker, a fellow executive, remembered his colleague. “To know Paul was to be tapped by Paul,’’ Anker said, adding that Mr. Pitz mined the time, talents and wallets of friends, colleagues and acquaintances.

Decisive and determined, Mr. Pitz spent much of his 83 years improving the lives of Indiana residents by serving on more than 20 non-profit boards and often leading their fund-raising drives. A vice-president of personnel for American States Insurance, Mr. Pitz lent his business acumen to Indianapolis non-profits. He is credited with professionalizing staff, streamlining organizations and developing successful partnerships with other civic and artistic groups.

Mr. Pitz and his late wife, Roseann, a mother of six and an amateur violinist, made a bequest this year to Antioch College, one of the places where their romance blossomed. A native of Midland, Pennsylvania, Mr. Pitz was the son of a steelworker.

His parents, Paul and Petra, were emigrants from Serbia, one of the five regions that made up the former Yugoslavia. Mr. Pitz spent four years working in a Western Pennsylvania steel mill to save enough money for college. When he arrived in Yellow Springs in 1937, his classmates called him “the old man.’’

While a student at Antioch, Mr. Pitz benefited from the school’s work-study cooperative program, which allowed him to work in five different industries in Indianapolis, including U.S. Rubber, L.S. Ayres department store, American Can Co. and Curtis Wright. At Antioch, Mr. Pitz discovered The New Yorker, a publication he read most of his life and began listening to classical music and opera.

While working at the Indiana State Employment Service in Indianapolis, Mr. Pitz met Roseann Fogarty. “She came by one morning and yanked my bow tie off. She didn’t want to marry me because I was a schoolboy,’’ Mr. Pitz recalled. On the couple’s 50th wedding anniversary, Mr. Pitz wore a bow tie to a family dinner.

On June 21, 1942, he graduated from Antioch with distinction with a B.A. in political science. He enlisted in the U.S. Army Air Corps and achieved the rank of captain. After the war, Mr. Pitz served as personnel director of Pitman-Moore, a pharmaceutical company in Indianapolis. In 1952, he joined American States Insurance and rose to become vice president in charge of personnel. Mr. Pitz served on many boards including but not limited to the Indianapolis Foundation, St. Vincent Hospital, Indiana Chamber of Commerce, and the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra.

In 1967, he received the Brotherhood Award from the National Conference of Christians and Jews. That same year, he was appointed to the board of trustees of Marian College, a small liberal arts school that awarded him an honorary doctorate in 1974.

Following his retirement in March of 1981, Mr. Pitz was elected president of Cathedral Arts in the early 1980s. The non-profit is dedicated to promoting the careers of young artists and cultural enrichment in downtown Indianapolis. In 1987, Mr. Pitz also received the Jefferson Award in recognition of his work in the community and his counseling of young and old people who had career problems or were job hunting.

In June of 1992, he was inducted into the Indiana Academy, and in 1995, the Fine Arts Society of Indianapolis awarded him its Diploma of Honor. As vice-president of that society in 1973, Mr. Pitz initiated the creation of an endowment to ensure that classical music would continue to be broadcast on WICR FM.

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