Val Logsdon Fitch was born to Fred B. and Frances M. (Logsdon) Fitch on March 10, 1923, on a cattle ranch near Merriman, Nebraska, a short distance from the South Dakota border. After an injury to the elder Fitch on the ranch, the family moved to nearby Gordon, Nebraska, where Fitch attended public primary and secondary schools. After graduation, he joined the U.S. Army.

In 1943, Fitch was assigned to the Special Engineering Detachment located in Los Alamos, New Mexico, the research center of the Manhattan Project. In that assignment, he had contact with some of the world's greatest physicists who were working on the design of the atomic bomb. Originally interested in chemistry, Fitch changed his career plans to physics as a result of his wartime experiences.

After his discharge, Fitch enrolled in Montreal's McGill University and earned his bachelor of science degree in electrical engineering two years later...