Sometimes, certain people make such an impact that their passing sends ripples far and wide. Jim and Terry Fitzgerald – who had lived outside Bayfield at the foot of the piñon and sagebrush-blanketed HD Mountains since 1970 – did just that.
The Fitzgeralds died Tuesday night when their house on County Road 525 burned down. The news sent shock waves through La Plata County.
By many accounts, the north star in both Jim’s and Terry’s lives was trying to create a better world. A quick scan through social media reveals just how far-reaching their impact was, stemming from a shared love for people and the environment.
They served in Chile through the Peace Corps together in the 1960s – where they fell in love – before moving to their off-grid home in Bayfield. There, they embedded themselves in the community.
A Facebook post from Pine River Shares, a food share program in Bayfield, said the Fitzgeralds were “the heart and soul” of the program.
“They brought us the stories of this Valley we call home and tied us to it with threads that bind us together, loving and caretaking this place and each other,” the Pine River Share’s post said.
The Fitzgeralds were also longtime attendees and mentors at the Bayfield Farmers Market. According to a post from the organization, the Fitzgeralds “fueled the dream” of the market’s organizers by offering advice during long talks at their homestead kitchen table.
“They came every season and told us they were proud,” the post said.
Another post from Upper Pine River Fire Protection District’s page said the Fitzgeralds died as they lived, “inseparable, robustly connected to the land.”
Their house itself was an extension of their appreciation for the land, the Upper Pine post said. The timber of it was harvested directly from the property when it was built in 1910. They even moved the original structure to get a better vantage of one of Jim’s favorite trees. Together with their family, they formed the bricks that would make some of the adobe walls with mud from a nearby canyon.
The Fitzgeralds were also fiercely protective of the environment in which they lived.
Terry Fitzgerald was vocal in the permitting of oil and gas drilling in the HD Mountains east of Bayfield, which their property abutted. When President Joe Biden signed an executive order prohibiting any new oil and gas drilling projects on public lands in 2021 – which halted the sale of 1,500 acres of land in the HDs – it felt like a victory.
“We’re absolutely delighted,” Terry Fitzgerald said in a 2021 Durango Herald article. “We thought the leasing around here is the most ridiculous thing in the world, and we’ve been fighting the destruction of the HDs for years now.”
Both Terry, a registered nurse, and Jim, an FLC professor, personally touched the lives of many.
FLC published a statement Friday stating that Jim, who taught Spanish and sociology at the college for three decades, was deeply influential. His classroom environment “was a space where students were challenged to think critically, honor culture and see themselves as part of a larger human story.”
“We are deeply saddened by the loss of Jim and Terry Fitzgerald,” FLC President Heather Shotton said in the release. “Jim spent three decades at Fort Lewis College mentoring students and helping shape a campus grounded in curiosity, culture and belonging. The Fitzgerald family’s legacy, carried forward through their daughter Janine’s service to Fort Lewis College, is deeply woven into this community.”
Their daughter, Janine Fitzgerald, also taught sociology at the school, carrying her father’s legacy forward and making her own contributions to the school – including securing $25,000 in funding for the “Return to Dinétah: Community-Based Language Learning” project.
Linda Simmons, another former professor at FLC, said her and Jim helped run a study abroad program in Mexico. That program – in which students had to live with a Mexican family, bolstering their understanding of Spanish and how people there lived – gave students a better understanding of different ways of life.
“We would recommend the international experience to anybody, because it really causes people to lose the stereotypes that they so frequently have about folks in other countries,” Simmons said. “For the students, having to live with a family – understanding both joys and the difficulties that they face in their lives – it just makes them a better human being. Jim was really good at that.”
Simmons spent time with both Jim and Terry at their home – where the two sometimes hosted international exchange students – and said they exemplified kindness.
Maria Samora, an FLC alum and one of Jim’s students, said he was a very kind and generous man who was committed to social justice and dedicated to his students. She said she learned more about Spanish – her first language – from him. She also went to Mexico with him.
Samora said Fitzgerald inspired her to go on to get her master’s and doctorate degrees and become an educator herself after her graduation from FLC. She said he was generous with his time in and outside the classroom – a truly valuable trait for an educator.
“One thing I learned from him was the power of empathy for others,” Samora said.
A memorial service for the Fitzgeralds will be held from 1 to 5 p.m. Sunday at the La Plata County Fairgrounds in the Exhibit Hall. All are welcome and encouraged to bring stories about the couple.
sedmondson@durangoherald.com
Newsletter signup
To receive daily or breaking news alerts, visit www.durangoherald.com/newsletter-signup/
