Dr. Herman C. (j. 1/1964; d. 2000), a pharmacist, and Hortense Fitzgerald (j. 1/1964; d. 2001), a public school teacher, were trailblazers in their Dupont Circle neighborhood, becoming the first Black family living in the 1900 block of S Street NW, at a time when 16th Street was considered white. Their membership at All Souls spanned four decades, from the early 1960s until their deaths. Although they lived their last 20 years in Annapolis, they both were memorialized at the church.
Dr. Fitzgerald received a doctor of pharmacy degree from Meharry Medical College in Nashville, Tenn., owned his own pharmacy in Prairie View, Texas, and taught at Prairie View A&M University in the 1930s. He operated his second pharmacy in the 1940s in Washington before retiring from DC General Hospital in 1975 as assistant to the director of the hospital’s pharmacy. Mrs. Fitzgerald received a bachelor’s degree in 1928 and a master’s degree from Howard in 1930. She taught chemistry at Prairie View University when the couple lived in Texas and then worked for the federal government from 1935 to 1952 when her husband had his second pharmacy in DC. She later taught in the DC public schools from 1953 to 1968 and at Trinity College from 1968 to 1979.