Age 26. 63 Institute Road, Worcester, MA. Born 10/07/1916, Lakewood, OH. Died of burns (death certificate). Production manager, Worcester plant, American Steel & Wire Co. (steel wire, cable and rope), of Cleveland, OH. Was relocated by the firm from Ohio to its Bay State operations six months before the blaze. Attended the big afternoon B.C. / College of the Holy Cross football game at Fenway Park with unnamed friends. Reported in the 11/29/1942 Sunday Telegram, Worcester, to be pronounced as dead upon arrival at Chelsea Naval Hospital, Chelsea, MA (no military attachment). "The arm of coincidence reached out, and deposited him in the Grove. Then, with its fingers, it wrote his name on the list of victims" (Boston Daily Record, 11/30/1942). Advance notice: "Edward P. Fitch...officer aboard a lake freighter, tonight will be told by his wife that a brother, Hubert Fitch...was one of the victims of the Cocoanut Grove holocaust..." (The Sandusky Register Star-News, Sandusky, OH, 11/30/1942). Was raised in Lakewood, OH. Wife former Mary Katherine Reidy, age 26 (Born 7/15/1916. Died 5/16/1988, in Cleveland, age 71. Never remarried), married on 10/11/1941, in Lakewood, OH. Wife was not present. Survived by a 3-month-old daughter, Katherine Ann. Was tall and slender (WWII draft registration, October '40: 6' 0," 175 lbs.). First name was misreported as "Herbert" in some news accounts and on his death certificate (correct given name on the final official Committee on Public Safety master casualties list). His was the first Grove-related death certificate (of an eventual 490) to be permanently filed with the Massachusetts Registry of Vital Records and Statistics. Parents Capt. and Mrs. Edward P., Sr., and Elizabeth A. (Dempsey) Fitch, Lakewood, OH. Father was a Great Lakes steamship captain. Burial at St. John Cemetery, Cleveland. Middle name Raphael.

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