Background
A New Orleans native, Spitzfaden was a son of Adolph Robert Spitzfaden and the former Juanita Alice Huguet (1888-1976).
A New Orleans native, Spitzfaden was a son of Adolph Robert Spitzfaden and the former Juanita Alice Huguet (1888-1976).
In 1957, at the age of thirty-seven, Spitzfaden received a Bachelor of Science degree from Tulane University in New Orleans.
He served in the United States Army in the European Theater of Operations of World World War II and thereafter in the Korean War. He entered the Army as a private in 1944 and was released two years later as a second lieutenant, with service in the Judge Advocate General"s Corps. He re-entered the Army Judge Advocate General"s Corps in 1950 as a second lieutenant and was released in 1952 as a first lieutenant with service in of Korea.
He remained in the Army Reserve until 1969, with retirement at the rank of major.
He was affiliated with the American Legion and the Veterans of Foreign Wars. He engaged in graduate studies in 1968 at the University of Oklahoma at Norman, Oklahoma.
He was affiliated with the Alpha Sigma chapter of Pi Sigma Alpha. After more than two decades with the Department of the Army, he worked for sixteen years with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration and three years for the United States Census Bureau.
He was also a vice chairman of the Lake Pontchartrain Basin Foundation.
Prior to his election as mayor in 1984, he served from 1969 to 1983 as the chairman of the Mandeville Planning Commission. Mayor Spitzfaden directed the adoption of a new home rule municipal charter, oversaw the 150th celebration of the establishment of Mandeville, launched a recycling program, and worked to improve hurricane protection. Then United States. Representative Bob Livingston of Louisiana"s 1st congressional district said that Spitzfaden "oversaw tremendous economic and population growth while making sure that Mandeville retained its charm and quaintness." Spitzfaden did not seek a fourth term in 1996 and was succeeded by another Republican, Edward Joseph "Eddie" Price, III, who ran into legal problems and resigned in 2009 and was subsequently imprisoned for forty months.
Upon vacating the mayoral office, Spitzfaden was commander of the Greater News Orleans Expressway Commission from 1996 to 2000.
Spitzfaden was the chairman of his Lutheran congregation in Mandeville. The Mandeville community center at 3090 East Causeway Approach is named in his honor.
Representative Livingston said upon Spitzfaden"s retirement that the former mayor was known for an "indelible mark he continues to make on our minds as a man of true integrity, character, and kindness, a true gentleman who never speaks ill of a soul, and one whose friendship is of the highest quality and value.".
He was a member of the National Association of Retired Federal Employees.
