Joe Fitts, Retired Fountain Valley High Teacher, Dies

FOUNTAIN VALLEY —  Lt. Col. Joe Fitts, a retired Fountain Valley High School teacher, has died. He was 78.

Fitts, who taught at Fountain Valley until 1972, suffered a stroke and passed away Tuesday at the California State Veterans Home in Yountville. Memorial services will be held there and at Fountain Valley High next week. The date for the high school memorial is being planned.

“Everybody absolutely loved him,” said friend Ann H. Beirne of Irvine. “He was a real popular older teacher whom everybody looked up to.”

Fitts served in the U.S. Marine Corps during World War II. After his retirement, he and his wife of 53 years, Pepper, played cards and square-danced, Beirne said.

Fitts is survived by his wife; daughters Lucinda Fitts of Victorville and Candace Fitts-Baranchok of Pennsylvania; and granddaughter Jocilyn Fitts of San Diego.