Frederic Brenton Fitch papers

Frederic Brenton Fitch, the son of Ashbel Parmelee and Josephine Hoyt (Smith) Fitch, was born in Greenwich, Connecticut, on September 9, 1908, but spent most of his childhood growing up in New York City where his father was a lawyer. He was prepared for college at the Hotchkiss School and graduated from Yale College with the class of 1931. Three years later, he received a Ph.D. in philosophy from Yale and was already teaching at Yale by the next year. In 1951, Fitch became full professor of philosophy. He concluded his career at Yale as Sterling Professor of Philosophy, a position he held between 1974 and 1977. His specialty was in symbolic logic and he not only taught courses, but was also a consultant to IBM and Bell Telephone Company in this subject. He worked extensively with computers and at one time, devised a proof of the existence of God. Fitch died on September 18, 1987.