Art Fitzpatrick

Fitzpatrick continued to lecture widely and appeared at venues such as the Center For Creative Studies and the Gilmore Car Museum in Michigan. He gave his last presentation at the Automobile Driving Museum in El Segundo, California in October 2015.

Art Fitzpatrick died at 96 years on November 16, 2015 in Carlsbad, California after a short illness.

In 2012, he received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, where he had served as a guest lecturer since 1965. Fitzpatrick was an honorary member of the Classic Car Club of America (CCCA) and the Automotive Fine Art Society (AFAS). In Fitzpatrick's honor, the AFAS presents an award annually at the Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance.

Fitzpatrick drew two series of top-selling commemorative stamps for the U.S. Postal Service titled "America on the Move" which were released in 2005 and 2008. The first series celebrated 1950s sporty cars, such as the Chevrolet Corvette, Ford Thunderbird and Kaiser Darrin. The second set, "tail fins and chrome," featured such cars as the 1959 Cadillac Eldorado, Chrysler 300C and Lincoln Premiere.

Fitzpatrick received the first national Andy Award (the advertising industry's equivalent of the Oscar) in 1964 by the Advertising Club of New York City.

In 1953, General Motors hired Fitzpatrick and Kaufman to serve as the Buick division's advertising artists. They moved to Pontiac in 1959 to produce the artwork for the Pontiac "wide-track" campaign, which concluded in 1971. "Wide-track" was the longest, and arguably the most successful, ad campaign in American automobile industry history. In 1972, Fitzpatrick and Kaufman moved to General Motors' European subsidiary, Opel, where they produced advertising artwork for several years.

He moved to California with his parents in 1938 and took a job with Howard "Dutch" Darrin, where Fitzpatrick developed designs for Darrin-modified Packards.

In 1936, Fitzpatrick enrolled at the Detroit Society of Arts and Crafts (now the College for Creative Studies). At that time, he was 18 years old and worked at Chrysler at night to pay his way. John Tjaarda, the head stylist at the Briggs Body Company, hired him as an apprentice designer, where he worked on various projects for Chrysler, Packard and Lincoln. Fitzpatrick is credited with designing the 1940 Packard 180 sedan.

Arthur M. Fitzpatrick (November 24, 1919 – November 16, 2015) was an American art director widely known for his automotive art and advertising illustrations. Fitz, as he was often called, was noted for his work was on the Pontiac "wide-track" campaign from 1959-1972, working with Van Kaufman. Fitzpatrick had several careers over eight decades, including automobile designing, art director and stamp designer. Near the end of his career, he designed two series of automobile stamps for the U.S. Postal Service, released in 2005 and 2008.