Born just long enough ago to have served in World War II in Naval Intelligence, Jim Fitzgeralds early visit to Hawaii gave him a lifelong interest in scuba-diving and things of the sea. From his father, he inherited an interest in real estate, and you could say his other consuming passion was inherited too. For Jim, like many Irish Americans, is a profoundly political person, his focus being on his home turf, the San Francisco Bay area of California.

He was Mayor and Councilman of San Bruno for eight years, on the Board of Supervisors for twenty years, and was President of the Board of...