Book Description

Oscar Penn Fitzgerald (1829-1911) was an American Bishop of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, elected in 1890. He taught in a country school in Rockingham County for a time. Meanwhile, being an earnest student, he continued writing for the press, becoming connected with the Richmond Examiner shortly thereafter. In 1867 he was elected Superintendent of Public Instruction of the State of California, serving in this position for four years. During his administration he was instrumental in the establishment of an institution that has since become the University of California, Berkeley. During this period, Rev. Fitzgerald also offered himself for the Democratic nomination for the U. S. Senate. He was also a Regent of the University of California for four years, and the Chairman of the Committee on Instruction. Rev. Fitzgerald also filled the Chair of Homiletics in the Pacific Methodist College, and was for a time the President of that institution. In 1867, he was originator and treasurer of a movement in California for the relief of sufferers in the South following the American Civil War.