Glenn Fritz

By John Lange

Glenn Fritts was born in 1926 south of Kansas City in Bates County, Missouri. In 1931 his family bought a row crop farm on Miami Creek, which was very close to Wilson’s Creek. Wilson’s Creek was the location of the 1st major Civil War battle west of the Mississippi. Glenn’s family found many Civil war relics, pistols, cannon balls, etc. At the age of 14 Glenn took a job with the county grading roads using an early Allis Chalmers tractor. Glenn’s extended family initially farmed with steam. Later, they farmed in the summers and ran a steam driven sawmill in the winters. Family gas tractors were mainly International Harvester and Allis Chalmers makes. In 1943 Glenn joined the United States 2nd Infantry Division. He was stationed in Fort Lewis Washington near Tacoma, and trained as a sharpshooter. He boarded a train headed for San Francisco to ship out to the Pacific, presumably for the invasion of Japan. The train was locked down and did not stop. As they passed through stations people held up newspapers with headlines announcing the dropping of the first atomic bomb, and his trip to Japan was cancelled. Glenn then went to Aberdeen, Maryland for mechanics training on Jeeps, Power Wagons and tanks. He then moved to Denver and went to DU on the GI Bill, and earned a degree in Mechanical Engineering. Glenn spent his working career as an engineer for CDOT, retiring after 35 years, and was instrumental in helping design projects like the Eisenhower Tunnel and Glenwood Canyon. Glenn married Barbara in 1956 and has three daughters and a son. Always interested in anything mechanical, Glenn joined FRAPA in 2016. He has a 1947 Willy’s Jeep (which he still drives) he bought in the early 50’s to prowl the Colorado back country with his wife, who also loved the outdoors and historic Colorado ghost towns. He is currently restoring a 1926 1.5hp JD E hit and miss engine, very similar to what his family used on the farm to run all sorts of appliances and machinery.