Oscar Marion Fritz (March 3, 1878October 5, 1957) was an

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lawyer and jurist from the

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Wisconsin Wisconsin () is a state in the upper Midwestern United States. Wisconsin is the 25th-largest state by total area and the 20th-most populous. It is bordered by Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake M ...

. He was the 14th Chief Justice of the

Wisconsin Supreme Court The Wisconsin Supreme Court is the highest appellate court in Wisconsin. The Supreme Court has jurisdiction over original actions, appeals from lower courts, and regulation or administration of the practice of law in Wisconsin. Location The Wi ...

, serving a total of 25 years on the high court. Prior to that, he served 17 years as a

Wisconsin circuit court The Wisconsin circuit courts are the general trial courts in the state of Wisconsin. There are currently 69 circuits in the state, divided into 10 judicial administrative districts. Circuit court judges hear and decide both civil and criminal case ...

judge in

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Biography

Born in

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, Wisconsin, to

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immigrants

Theodore Fritz Theodore Fritz (August 27, 1851 - December 19, 1922) was a grocer and local politician from Milwaukee, Wisconsin who served as a member of the Wisconsin State Senate from 1887-1888. He was born August 27, 1851 in Falkenburg, Prussia, and moved to ...

and Dora Fritz (''née'' Glatz). During his childhood, his father served four years (1887–1891) in the

Wisconsin State Senate The Wisconsin Senate is the upper house of the Wisconsin State Legislature. Together with the larger Wisconsin State Assembly they constitute the legislative branch of the state of Wisconsin. The powers of the Wisconsin Senate are modeled after t ...

, representing part of the city of Milwaukee as a member of the

socialist Socialism is a left-wing economic philosophy and movement encompassing a range of economic systems characterized by the dominance of social ownership of the means of production as opposed to private ownership. As a term, it describes the e ...

Peoples' Party. Fritz was educated in

Milwaukee Public Schools Milwaukee Public Schools (MPS) is the largest school district in Wisconsin. As of the 2015–16 school year, MPS served 75,568 students in 154 schools and had 9,636 full-time equivalent (FTE) staff positions. The Milwaukee Public Schools system i ...

and studied law through the Milwaukee Law School, a student-owned cooperative which provided night school law classes from volunteer instructors. He went on to attend the

University of Wisconsin Law School The University of Wisconsin Law School is the professional graduate law school of the University of Wisconsin–Madison. Located in Madison, Wisconsin, the school was founded in 1868. The University of Wisconsin Law School is guided by a "law in ...

Madison, Wisconsin Madison is the county seat of Dane County and the capital city of the U.S. state of Wisconsin. As of the 2020 census the population was 269,840, making it the second-largest city in Wisconsin by population, after Milwaukee, and the 80th-lar ...

, where he graduated in 1901. From 1901 through 1912, Fritz practiced law in Milwaukee in partnership with Theodore Kronshage, Francis E. McGovern, Guy D. Goff, Walter D. Corrigan, and Timothy J. Hannan. In June 1912, Fritz was appointed

judge by his former law partner, Governor Francis McGovern, to fill the vacancy caused by the death of Judge Warren D. Tarrant. His appointment was confirmed by election the following spring, and he was elected to a full term in 1917. He was subsequently re-elected in 1923 and 1929. In May 1929, just after his circuit court re-election, Judge Fritz was appointed to the

by Governor Walter J. Kohler. He was elected to a full term in 1934, and was subsequently re-elected in 1944. In 1950, with the retirement of Chief Justice Marvin B. Rosenberry, he became the most-senior serving member of the high court, and thus became the 14th chief justice. In 1953, Justice Fritz announced he would not run for another term in 1954. Later that year, he announced he would resign effective January 1, 1954, with a full year left before the end of his term. Judge Fritz was hospitalized in Milwaukee after a

stroke A stroke is a medical condition in which poor blood flow to the brain causes cell death. There are two main types of stroke: ischemic, due to lack of blood flow, and hemorrhagic, due to bleeding. Both cause parts of the brain to stop functionin ...

and died there on October 5, 1957.

Personal life and family

Oscar Fritz married Ena B. Lorch in 1902. They had two children together, Marion (Mar) Theodore and Norma Louise. Ena died in 1945, and, two years later, Judge Fritz married Anna Marie Millmann of Milwaukee, who was then a member of the board of directors of the Marquette University Alumni Association. He was survived by his second wife and by both children from his first marriage. He was

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and interred alongside his first wife at Milwaukee's historic

Forest Home Cemetery Forest Home Cemetery is a historic rural cemetery located in the Lincoln Village neighborhood of Milwaukee, Wisconsin and is the final resting place of many of the city's famed beer barons, politicians and social elite. Both the cemetery and ...

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Fritz, Oscar M. Lawyers from Milwaukee University of Wisconsin Law School alumni Wisconsin state court judges Chief Justices of the Wisconsin Supreme Court 1878 births 1957 deaths Milwaukee Law School alumni