Gerald Michael Fitzgibbon (aka Mike or Fitz) passed away peacefully at home near Mount Vernon, Alexandria on February 26th, at the age of 82. He is survived by his younger brother Rick, of Seattle, Washington. They grew up in an Irish-Catholic family in a suburb of Detroit. He attended a parochial boy’s school where he was the lead French horn player in the school band. Mike graduated in Electrical Engineering at the University of Detroit. To finance school, he enrolled in an engineering co-op where he got his start with the Defense Department at Wright Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton, Ohio, in 6-month intervals. After a while in Dayton, he took an internship at the Pentagon, where he went on to work for 41 years. In his 4 decade career with the Defense Department, he worked in various functions, including the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), development of the V-22 “Osprey” tiltrotor military transport and cargo aircraft, national security policy, intelligence, and nuclear non-proliferation negotiations. He retired in 2009. He also volunteered to manage intensive experiential public leadership training programs developed by the now-defunct Institute for Public Service, in Washington, DC. In retirement, in order to better understand his health issues, Mike decided to take all of the pre-med anatomy and physiology courses at the Northern Virginia Community College, as well as all of the courses in acupuncture and herbal medicine at the Virginia University of Integrative Medicine (VUIM) in Vienna. He freely shared his new medical knowledge with anyone who would listen. He greatly enjoyed skiing, riding his Gold Wing motorcycles, and tinkering with his Honda Preludes. He also enjoyed river rafting, SCUBA diving, sky and a safari in Kenya and Tanzania. He did a fair amount of domestic and international travel in his government career, and had interesting stories about his personal travels. He was a good spirit and will be missed…