William W. Fritz           

I am one of those rare natives of South Florida, with relatives on my mother’s side of the family who were pioneers of South Florida and relatives on my father’s side who were pioneers of Central Florida.  I graduated from Florida State University in 1965 with a BS degree in Accounting.   My wife, Michelle, and I were married while I was a student at FSU.  We have two children and four grandchildren.

My professional career began with a summer internship with a Miami CPA firm that merged with an international firm during my final summer prior to graduation.  After graduation, I started with a St. Petersburg CPA firm and the governmental audit experience with that firm led to an offer to be part of the original staff of Florida’s newly formed Office of the Auditor General.   I left the Auditor General to become the first Director of Internal Control for Florida International University.  I was later promoted to Controller of the University.  I expanded my experiences with the position of Dean of Administration and Treasurer of a small college in Pennsylvania, now known as The Pennsylvania College of Technology.  A move to a larger institution led me to become the first Comptroller of the Virginia Community College System.  While at the System, I was recruited by the W.K. Kellogg Foundation to replace the retiring Vice President of Finance and Treasurer.  My duties at the Foundation also included Chief Investment Officer.  I retired from the Foundation, but subsequently went back to my education institutional experiences as Chief Business Officer and Treasurer of a unique member of the Illinois University System, the Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy.  I retired a second (and final) time in 2004.

I have held CPA licenses in the States of Florida and Tennessee and the Commonwealth’s of Virginia and Pennsylvania.  I was a member in each society, institute, or association of CPA’s in the states that I was employed and served on local chapter, state wide and national committees, dealing with relationships between the profession and education.  I maintain current membership in the AICPA and the Virginia Society of CPA’s.  I have also been a member of the boards of numerous community not-for-profit organizations and served on the national organizations’ steering committees of Private Foundations and residential Mathematics and Science Academies business and investment officers.  And,  I am proud to have been a member of FSU’s College of Business Alumni Advisory Board and Department of Accounting’s Professional Advisory Board as well as a member of the College of Business’s Emeritus Board.

My wife and I have recently completed a year-plus cruise on our trawler and are looking forward to being home and enjoying the grandchildren and using our vacation home in the North Carolina mountains.