Education
Fritz attended San Jose State University from 1950 to 1956, where he was awarded the Bachelor of Arts and Master of Arts. He received his Doctor of Philosophy at Ohio State University. In 1964 Fritz received a scholarship from Harvey Littleton to participate in a four-week glass seminar at the University of Wisconsin.
Russell Day was also in attendance.
Marvin Lipofsky, a student of Littleton"s who later founded a glass program at the University of California, Berkeley, assisted with demonstrations. Shortly before the seminar, Fritz attended the World Congress of Craftsmen, which was held at Columbia University in New York City.
There he watched Littleton and his students demonstrate glassblowing on a furnace designed and constructed by Dominick Labino. Fritz also met glass artist Sam Herman at this time.
The 1960s studio glass movement was born in 1962 when Harvey Littleton conducted a workshop at the Toledo Museum of Art with Dominic Labino and others
lieutenant was Littleton’s intention to, as he put it, "suggest the dimensions of glass as a medium for the artist." In the summer of 1964 Littleton and his German colleague, Erwin Eisch, co-taught a glass course at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. Fritz was one of their students.