JOSEPH NEWTON FRITZ Dec. 27, 1931 – Jan. 27, 2024
Sadly, Joseph Newton Fritz, after having overcome a health challenge just before Thanksgiving 2023, passed away Jan. 27 due to complications from a fall he suffered in his long-time home in Los Alamos, N.M. He was 92 years old.
Joe was born in the small coal mining community of Klein, Mont., Dec. 27, 1931, to Joe Fritz and Justina Fritz (née Stefanik). Early on, the younger Joe displayed high aptitude for academic pursuits, of which his father, who had no access to education, was extremely proud. Joe made his way from a one-room schoolhouse, through acceptance to Montana State University, all the way to Cornell University where he received his Ph.D. in physics, gathering lifetime friends along the way.
While studying at Cornell, Joe met Georgia Thomas, who was pursuing her degree in analytical chemistry. The two became a couple, moving through graduate school with a group of friends who tackled the challenges of academia and cold Ithaca winters with humor, ice skates, hot chocolate and homemade beer.
Joe first came to New Mexico as a summer intern for the Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory in 1955. He and Georgia were married in 1957 during one of the summers out west, then moved permanently to Los Alamos in the winter of ‘60/’61. Joe became fully employed at what is now Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) for the rest of his career, making important contributions to the shockwave physics field. His work is still being used to this day and is happily decipherable due to his deft coding and excellent penmanship.
In addition to his five grandchildren: Galen, Hannah, Casey, Petra and Soren (all last name Fritz), Joe is survived by his three children: Peter, David and Diane Fritz. His children developed into outdoor addicts through family and friend backpacking trips and easy access to canyons and the Pajarito ski hill. Joe’s main avocation, coming from Montana, was fly fishing. He was more successful in teaching his children how to tie flies than learn the language of math, but he tried both. Trout wasn’t always the target, however. The Fritz family would also go on memorable crayfishing excursions with friends to the Rio Grande.
Joe largely learned to play the piano at Montana State where he obtained a level of talent to be invited to play on the local radio station when he was still a teenager. In later years he embraced his love of music. He developed a penchant for barbershop quartet songs during his 30-minute commute to his work site with his three carpool companions. The group realized, back in the late 60s as they made their way along N.M. Highway 4, that they made up a perfect quartet. Joe continued playing the piano to the end and sang in the Lads of Enchantment barbershop chorus for as long as his lungs would allow.
Joe was predeceased in 1996 by his wife Georgia, who also worked at LANL.
His family and friends will all dearly miss this sweet, sweet man. A memorial service will be planned for late June, 2024.
