Dennis Fitzgerald

Dennis John Fitzgerald, age 71 of Butler, passed away peacefully, with the comfort of his family by his side, on Sunday, December 23, 2018.

Dennis was born in Passaic and raised for a short time in Clifton before moving to Butler where he began school. He graduated from Butler High School with the Class of 1965.

While in high school, Dennis met a pretty girl named Sandra “Sandy” Reardon and soon, they fell in love. They got engaged on Valentine’s Day in 1969 and married at Saint Mary’s Church in Pompton Lakes on Sunday, November 2, 1969. They honeymooned in Bermuda and went there again to celebrate their twenty-fifth wedding anniversary.

Following high school, Dennis went to work as a mason apprentice. After honing his skills for several years working for various contractors, he started his own business in 1973. He could do anything…..blockwork, brickwork, stonework…..you name it, and he built many swimming pools over his 45 year career too. He was a perfectionist who loved his work so much, he never really retired. His wife Sandy was his greatest partner in the business, handling phone calls to the office, as well as much of the billing and bookwork.

Dennis was a frequent golfer at Sunset Valley Golf Course in Pequannock and at Farmstead Gold and Country Club in Sparta. For a guy who didn’t start golfing until he was in his fifties, he was pretty darn good. Sandy enjoyed his Sunday morning golf outings. He’d be out on the course by 7:00 AM to play nine holes and, being home by the time she was having her first cup of coffee, she’d be known to light-heartedly quip “I’m not ready for you yet.” There were also the annual golf trips with three of his buddies – Craig, John and Bill, to Ocean City Maryland. This was a tradition enjoyed for many years. As a side note, Dennis always had quite an eye for fashion and the golf course was one of the places where he always wanted to look his best. His shoes always matched his socks, which had to match his pants, which had to match his shirt, which had to match his hat. He even had different rain jackets to complement each outfit. He would purchase complete ensembles.

Dennis was a man of traditions and one of those traditions was having coffee every morning at 6:00 AM before work with those same three high school buddies that he golfed with.  They always gathered at the B&B Deli (formerly Pros and All American Deli) on Boonton Ave in Butler. This went on for decades and they became affectionately known as “The Coffee Shop Cartel.”  

Many family memories were made at the backyard pool, on summer vacations to the Jersey Shore, trips to Disney with Sandy and the girls, and years later with grandchildren. He especially enjoyed the trips he took with Sandy and dear friends to St. Maarten and Florida over the winter months. While the travel was great, that pool Dennis built in his backyard was most special to him. Not so much because it was such a great pool (although it was really nice), but more because it became a special place for family and friends to gather on a regular basis. Dennis and Sandy and their neighbors enjoyed a special tight-knit sense of community and, unlike many neighborhoods which see families come and go, the neighbors around the Fitzgerald home have stayed for countless years. Consequently, that pool which started as a place for Dennis and Sandy to have regular gatherings with their friends and their daughters’ friends, became a place where their grandchildren and the neighborhood grandchildren continued to gather. This was very meaningful to Dennis and it gave him great joy. Dennis was a real family man who loved taking part in the lives of his grandchildren. He took enthusiastic interest in them and did his very best to attend all of their soccer and football games and the many dance recitals and competitions of his granddaughters’ over the years.

When he had serious spare time, Dennis occupied himself by searching for a 1964 white Pontiac GTO that was just like the one that he bought after he started working full time. While his first car in high school was a 1955 Chevy, there was something about that GTO that Dennis really missed. His family and friends got in on the search too and would often call him to excitedly tell him that they think they may have located one, but it was never exactly like the one he had and so the search went on.

After Sandy’s sad passing in 2015, Dennis started attending mass again at St. Mary’s Church in Pompton Lakes. After the 5 o-clock Saturday mass he’d often go out for dinner with friends. On Fridays, you could often find Dennis at Calandra’s in Fairfield, either with friends or sometimes by himself. He liked Friday nights because it was oldies night with a couple of musicians named Mark and Ted performing all the famous hits of his youth.

When asked to describe Dennis, his family used the word “stubborn.” He had a precise way of doing things and he truly felt that his way was the best. So if you asked Dennis for advice, he would give it to you once and lovingly remind you “I told you so”, if you chose to do it a different way and it didn’t work out. Dennis would do anything for his family. The bottom line was, he lived his life to make his family happy, always trying to ensure that his kids and grandchildren had everything they needed.

Dennis was the loving husband of Sandra, blessed in marriage for 46 years until her passing in 2015. He was the loving father of Denise and her husband Brian Segedin of Pequannock, and Lindsay and her husband Tim Hedenhag of Butler; cherished grandfather of Meggie, Jennie and Bradon Segedin, and Nate, Riley, and Mason Hedenhag; dear brother of the late Patricia Bossard (2017) and her husband Jan of Butler; and dear brother-in-law of David Reardon of Butler. He was also dearly loved by many nieces, nephews, cousins, friends and neighbors.

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Memorial donations to Foundation for Morristown Hospital Cardiology would be greatly appreciated.