Edward “Ned” Spence Fitzgibbons died Tuesday, Aug. 11 at Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center from complications following a heart attack. He was nearly 88. Mr. Fitzgibbons was a resident of Naples, Fla. and New London, N.H.  Born on August 19, 1921 to Harold Fitzgibbons and Angeline Spence Fitzgibbons in Brockton,  he grew up in the towns of Whitman and Duxbury.  He attended Milton Academy (Class of 1940) where he was captain of the baseball team. He graduated from Harvard (Class of 1944) with a BA in romance languages and was awarded the Barrett Wendell Jr. Bat for the most effective man at bat in 1942.  Mr. Fitzgibbons was signed by the Boston Red Sox and played AAA in Scranton before being called up for active duty in WWII. He served as an officer in the 11th Airborne Division of the U.S. Army Parachute Troops rising to Captain in 1946. During his tour of Japan after V Day, he organized the first baseball game between the U.S. and the Japanese.

After the war, Mr. Fitzgibbons began his career in the shoe and leather business at the family firm, E.P. Fitzgibbons in Whitman. In 1947 he joined Blanchard Brothers & Lane, a large upholstery tanner headquartered in Newark, N.J. that served the automotive industry. He rose to the position of president in 1956.  He moved over to Hanover Shoe, a shoe manufacturing concern located in Hanover, Penn., in 1958 where he served as president from 1962-1974. In 1975, Mr. Fitzgibbons joined Melville Corp. as senior vice president of their shoe manufacturing operation and from 1981 was President of Melville Footwear Manufacturing.

While living in Pennsylvania, Mr. Fitzgibbons served as president of the board of Hanover General Hospital as well as a member of the board of directors of York College and National Central Financial Corp. of Lancaster, Penn. He was also a director of the Nashua Corp. in Nashua, N.H.

Mr. Fitzgibbons leaves his wife of fifty-three years, Patricia May Fitzgibbons; his four children, Spence, Lisa, Caroline and Stephen; his siblings Ann, Jim and Harry; and eight grandchildren.  Services will be held at Holy Family Church in Duxbury at 10 a.m. on Saturday, Aug.15.  In lieu of flowers, donations may be sent to the H. Reginald and Rebecca Lord Nash Scholarship at Milton Academy, 170 Centre St. Milton, MA 02186.