Al Fritz
Bicycle designer (1924-2013)
Albert John Fritz (October 8, 1924 – May 7, 2013) was a vice president at the Schwinn Bicycle Company and is credited with creating the Schwinn Sting-Ray, which started the wheelie bike craze. Mr. Fritz was born in Chicago on October 8, 1924, and died on May 7, 2013, in Barrington, Illinois. He graduated from the 8th grade and then studied stenography. He joined the US Army and was on Gen. Douglas MacArthur's staff when he was wounded in the Philippines. He was awarded the Bronze Star for his role in the first advance team to land in the Philippines. He joined Schwinn in 1945 and worked initially as a grinder and a welder. He was vice president for engineering, research and development in 1962 when he launched the Sting-Ray. He retired from Schwinn in 1985 as head of Excelsior, Schwinn's exercise division.
The public source identifies “Al Fritz” as bicycle designer (1924-2013). This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Fritz, Bicycle and designer.
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This entry incorporates text from “Al Fritz” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.