- Date Of Birth: January 22, 1943
- Date Of Death: June 10, 2017
- State: Florida
William G. (Bill) Fitzpatrick
Command Sergeant Major, US Army (Retired)
Bill left this world on June 10, 2017, and has gone on to stand Reveille in heaven.
He is survived by Nancy, his loving wife, partner and best friend of 39 years, his brother Cdr. Jack Fitzpatrick, USN (Retired) and wife Eileen of Missoula, MT, his brother-in-law and nephew, Steve and Travis Farmer of Bloomingdale NY, his nephew Tom Fitzpatrick and family of St. Pete, FL, and numerous other nephews, niece, cousins and lifelong friends.
Bill grew up in Riverdale, Maryland. He joined the Army in 1961 shortly after turning 18 years of age. He was assigned to a special unit at Fort Benning Georgia being trained for a special mission. After 19 months at Benning, overseas tours followed to both Germany and Korea. Back at Fort Benning in 1966, he joined the 199th Light Infantry Brigade as a squad leader in the Recon platoon of the 3d Infantry (The Old Guard) and deployed with them to Vietnam where he earned the Purple Heart Medal while leading his squad in combat operations.
Upon completion of his tour in Vietnam, he joined the ranks of the Army Recruiting Command as the local Army recruiter in Salem, Massachusetts. He quickly rose through increasingly responsible leadership positions, finally culminating as the Command Sergeant Major of a Region headquartered in San Antonio, Texas spanning 17 states with over 1500 military recruiters in 300 offices.
Upon retiring from the Army, he joined the staff of the Non Commissioned Officers Association (NCOA) dedicated to helping veterans find work in the private sector. In addition to marketing the program to corporate America, he developed a dynamic four hour seminar that helped veterans prepare to market themselves for successful second careers using basic, simple sales techniques to develop a effective marketing plan. He trained over 40,000 veterans through his seminars in this highly regarded program during his worldwide travels. He also recruited, trained and supervised a team of public relations representatives who developed membership in the organization.
More recently, Fitzpatrick served as the Director of Training for Academy Life Insurance Company, initially as the Director of Recruiting and later as the Director of Training, where he developed the company’s basic agent sales training program and a full resident course for sales managers. He then rose to the position of Regional Vice President where he supervised sales in 18 States and Europe.
Upon his retirement from corporate America in 1998, Fitzpatrick moved to Melbourne, Florida and founded Sales Motivation Solutions, an organization with the goal of helping sales teams realize their full potential through effective training and positive motivation. He was very active in both the Cocoa Beach Regional Chamber of Commerce and the Melbourne Regional Chamber of Commerce of East Central Florida, and at Patrick Air Force was a life member of the Non Commissioned Officers Association and the Disabled American Veterans.. He holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Sales Management from Columbia College.
He is the co-author of “Does Your Resume Wear Combat Boots”, and “Does Your Resume Wear Blue Jeans”. He also authored “The Sales Manager’s Toolbox”, A practical guide for sales managers”, and “Ask for the Order”, A primer on sales and selling technique’s.
