WWII pilot caught lifelong passion for flight

Ronald F. Fritz loved speed -- horses, cars, motorcycles and, especially, planes. But he also had the patience and talent for the slower side of life -- building planes and his own home, gardening, creating crafts and spending time with children.

"His real love of life was aeronautics. He was always building planes and flying whenever he got a chance," said his daughter, Janice Sheaffer.

Mr. Fritz, of Mars, Butler County, died Sunday, June 20, 2004, following a brief bout with pneumonia and suffering several strokes. He was 81.

Mr. Fritz learned to fly after joining what was then the Army Air Corps, the forerunner of the Air Force, during World War II. Stationed at Blytheville Army Airfield in Arkansas, he became a flight officer and pilot and qualified as a sharpshooter of .45-caliber automatic pistols.

After his discharge in 1945, Mr. Fritz attended the Pittsburgh Institute of Aeronautics and later joined the Civil Air Patrol.

"He always liked to fly. He liked the speed," Sheaffer said. "He was always looking for a fast ride -- a fast horse, a fast motorcycle, a fast car. He was a speed demon all his life."

Still, he was a gentle man. "One of my cousin's kids crawled up in his lap and said, 'Are you Mister Rogers?' He was soft-spoken and gentle and wore a sweater," said Sheaffer, of Independence, Ky.

Mr. Fritz built his family a home in Mars, including a beauty shop for his wife's business. "He made this house; everything in the house, he made," from the bookcases to the picture frames, the marble mosaic floor of the beauty shop's entrance to the stained glass lamps, his daughter said.

In the garage, Mr. Fritz built planes, sometimes allowing his three daughters to help. Using foot-long needles, they stitched fabric over the ribs of the plane's wings.

He twice had close calls while flying. While flying his in-laws and Sheaffer, then a high school student, from Edinboro to Butler in a four-seat plane, Mr. Fritz found himself in a storm.

"It was a bad storm; you couldn't see anything," Sheaffer recalled. "He managed to get us home, and he wasn't even rated for flying by instruments ... talk about a quiet plane."

While Mr. Fritz was flying his wife, Helen Ann, to Florida 16 years ago to visit a new granddaughter, the plane iced up, killing the engine over West Virginia. He circled until he spotted an airstrip and safely landed the plane. The couple drove to Florida and Mr. Fritz sold the plane a short time later.

He spent 25 years as a glazier with H.B. Reynolds Inc. in Ross, installing large glass windows. After he retired, Mr. Fritz turned those skills to stained glass, making detailed lamps, mirrors and windows.

He also was a talented woodworker, making grandfather clocks, doll cradles and bluebird boxes. He made three-foot jewelry armoires for each of his daughters from an oak tree he had cut and planed. He also enjoyed growing roses and vegetables.

Mr. Fritz was a longtime elder with Mars United Presbyterian Church, where he volunteered as a repair and maintenance man.

In addition to his wife and daughter, Mr. Fritz is survived by two other daughters, Pamela Kamzalow, of Craig, Colo., and Ronna Fritz, of Butler; a sister, Rose Ann Marshall, of Mars; four grandchildren, and three great-grandchildren.

Visitation will be from 2 to 4 and 7 to 9 p.m. today at the McDonald-Aeberli Funeral Home Inc., 238 Crowe Ave., Mars. Funeral services will be at 10:30 a.m. Wednesday at Mars United Presbyterian Church, 232 Crowe Ave., Mars, followed by burial in Mars Cemetery.