William Tecumseh Sherman Fitch
Graduate of Northwestern Military Academy, Yale, Harvard
William Tecumseh Sherman Fitch, 76, known as “Cump” to his family and “Bill” to others, died January 13, 2014, in Washington Hospital.
Mr. Fitch was born October 12, 1937, in Washington, the first son of Tecumseh Sherman Fitch and Janet Reed Fitch.
He went to East Washington grade school, and graduated from Northwestern Military Academy in 1955.
Mr. Fitch then accepted a U.S. Navy scholarship to attend Yale University, where he graduated with a degree in engineering in 1959. During his Navy tour, from 1959 to 1962, he rose to the rank of lieutenant junior grade and commanded three LSU tank landing ships in the South China Sea.
He married Judith Myers of Washington in 1960, with whom he had four children, Colin, Eric, Tecumseh and Hilary.
Mr. Fitch received a masters of business administration from Harvard Business School in 1964.
After a divorce in 1968, he married Natasha Ignatieff of Noumea, New Caledonia.
He worked at Washington Steel, Star Dynamics and Permaform and served on the board of several corporations.
After surviving lung and bladder cancers for eight years, he unexpectedly succumbed to further widespread cancer in 2014. He died in Washington Hospital the morning of January 13, 2014.
Surviving are his three sons; his wife; three sisters, Rosamund, Mary and Madeleine; a brother, Thomas; two grandchildren, Thomas and Erin; and numerous nieces and nephews.
Friends will be received from 4 to 8 p.m. Thursday in Piatt and Barnhill Funeral Home, 420 Locust Avenue, Washington, where services will be held at 11 a.m. Friday, January 17, with the Rev. Dr. L. Stephen Smith officiating. Interment will follow in Washington Cemetery. Piatt and Barnhill Funeral Directors Inc., Charles R. Piatt, owner/supervisor and Lawrence K. Donovan, funeral director