Inducted in 2009
Prep Counselor, Coach & Teacher (1954-1957; 1962-2015)

Induction Video

Fr. Mallick Fitzpatrick, SJ was born in Brooklyn on August 16, 1929 and grew up in Queens on Colfax Street. 

Appointed by Cardinal Spellman, his father, Mallick Sr., was the first buyer for Institutional Commodity Services, the purchasing office for the New York Archdiocese. Mallick, Sr.'s reserved, insightful nature would make him a confidant to some of the most influential people in the Church in New York — proof, perhaps, that a gift for counseling is genetic.

Fitzpatrick was baptized in his early Brooklyn days by his great uncle — yet another Mallick.  Christening his nephew was by no means Uncle Mallick's only noteworthy accomplishment. Monsignor Fitzpatrick would do extraordinary work as director of the Mission of the Immaculate Virgin of Mount Loretto on Staten Island, an institution that would house and educate thousands of homeless children down through the decades. Granduncle Mal also had his own Prep connection: a Fordham College graduate, Class of 1888, he was appointed by the administration to oversee the newly appointed Second Division Reading Room during his college days. In other words, the eldest of the three Mallicks was actually the first Fordham Prep librarian.

Fr. Fitzpatrick's family was no less interesting on his mother's side. Elizabeth "Bess" Flynn Fitzpatrick —  a devout woman, and gifted cook and pianist — had four brothers, all graduates of Holy Cross College: William, the governor of Rhode Island; Edmund, chief justice of the state; Frederick, an attorney, who also served as secretary to the mayor of New York City; and John, who played first base for the Pittsburgh Pirates and the Washington Senators. In fact, in the early 1910s, the Pirates and Senators actually credited Elizabeth's "Homerun Pie" for a good number of their wins! 

For anyone who ever knew him, Mallick J. Fitzpatrick, SJ's remarkable pedigree would certainly have been no surprise. 
 
Mal attended Saints Joachim and Anne Grammar School in Queens Village and Regis High School before joining the Society of Jesus in September of 1947. He was assigned to the Prep as a Jesuit scholastic in September of 1954 and taught Latin, Greek and English. In addition, he coached freshman basketball and started his long involvement with Prep track. He left Rose Hill in June of 1957 for Woodstock, Maryland to study theology and complete studies for his June 1960 ordination.
 
After ordination, a year of tertianship in Wales and Germany helped to prepare Fitzpatrick for the role he would assume on his return to the Fordham Prep faculty. He spent three months serving as a United States Army chaplain in Heidelberg. By Father's own estimation, the experience confirmed for him that he was “interested in the whole person.” It was a pivotal experience that provided him with the skills that he honed in his role as counselor to several generations of grateful Prep students.
 
Fitzpatrick returned to the Prep in September 1962 as head of the Counseling Department and straightaway began to make changes to the college selection process. In a precedent-breaking move, he opened the application process to include non-Catholic colleges. He began visiting colleges so that he could see and hear for himself what colleges were offering and gain an impression of each school’s character and feel. In the days before the College Board’s Common Application process made it possible for students to submit one application to numerous colleges with one keystroke, Father also took on the responsibility of writing a recommendation for each application.

In the late 1960s, Fitzpatrick, along with colleague Fr. John Replogle, SJ, created the beginnings of the current Group Guidance Program at the Prep. A group of students would go for a group guidance retreat-of-sorts away from the Prep. Father has said that the mood of the country at the time was one of mistrust for institutions, and that leaving the Campus allowed for a feeling of community to develop among the participants.

The Group Guidance Program became part of the Prep’s curriculum in the late 1970s with students meeting with their counselors weekly during their four years. As for Father's masterpiece, the Prep's College Counseling Program, it would be recognized by the National Association of College Admission Counselors as an exemplar for schools nationwide.
 
In an interview with Rampart some years ago, Father explained his philosophy for counseling seniors: “I promote the development of the whole person, encouraging a senior to develop his own full potential and to take advantage of opportunities to grow and to give. In particular, the chance to make a first important decision about college helps a senior become a decisive person, one who can trust his judgment and his ability to make decisions in the future. I help a person live with his past, enjoy the challenges and satisfactions of the present, and focus on the future intelligently, confidently and heartily.”
 
In light of Father's singular accomplishments in the field of guidance, it is easy to overlook his coaching duties at the Prep. But those who were on his teams remember well.

Steve Dunne `61 wrote, “Mallick Fitzpatrick was ‘Mister’ back in 1957 when he coached freshman basketball but, even then, he was like a father to a bunch of kids just out of grammar school. We went everywhere by bus or subway — from Brooklyn to Westchester — and won a lot of games (and lost a few, too).  Mr. 'Fitz’ coached us with great enthusiasm, and that was reflected in the way we played all-out for him." 

“Great coaches, like great teachers," continued Dunne, "instill something of themselves into the athletes — something that lasts a long time but is never easy to define or put into words. Fitz was that kind of coach. We didn't know it then, but he was teaching us discipline and how to play the game -- lessons that sink in and last a lifetime, usually without our even being aware of them,” 

Beyond Father's former hoopsters, the Prep Track Program would not forget Coach Fitzpatrick either. In March 2009, Father was inducted into the Fordham Prep Track Hall of Fame.

Fr. Fitzpatrick completed his fiftieth year of service at the Prep in 2009, and remained active as a consultant to the College Counseling Department and as an art history teacher right up until his 2016 retirement to Murray-Weigel Hall, the Jesuit infirmary on Fordham Road.

The Rev. Mallick Fitzpatrick, SJ passed away on April 24, 2019

Much like the giant redwoods of California, which he often refers to when talking about his many trips across the country visiting colleges, Fitz has always stood tall, reaching for greater vibrancy and solidity within the life of each boy at the Prep. He has shown the way and has encouraged us to develop our educational efforts holistically. At times, again like the redwoods, his passion for total education has been unyielding, even stubborn, and he has always been true to the Jesuit ideal of cura personalis.

— from Mallick J. Fitzpatrick, SJ's Bene Merenti citation 1979