ATLANTA--J. Robert Fitzgerald, vice president of corporate responsibility and compliance for BellSouth Corp., has accepted the position of chairman of the Marist School board of trustees.

Fitzgerald, who has been a member of the board since 1985, succeeds Michael W. Trapp, managing partner of Ernst & Young, LLP. Trapp, who has been a member of the board since 1981 and chairman since 1986, will remain a member of the school board.

Fitzgerald, a parishioner and member of the parish council at the Cathedral of Christ the King, Atlanta, served as chairman of Marist's $5.2 million capital campaign from 1990-93 and currently serves on the executive committee of the school development committee. In addition to his role at Marist, Fitzgerald is chairman of St. Joseph's Hospital and vice-chairman of St. Joseph's Health System. He is also a member of the Loyola University Board of Trustees, the Louisiana State University Foundation and the United Way.

Marist has also appointed four new members to the board of trustees: Jerry Malec, president and CEO of Checkmate Electronics, Inc.; Clarence Haverty Smith, vice president of operations and development of Haverty Furniture Company; Anne D. Sumpter, specialist in anesthesia at St. Joseph's Hospital and Father Richard J. Egan, SM, from the Church of St. Louis, King of France in St. Paul, Minn.

Marist is a private, Catholic, college preparatory day school for boys and girls in grades seven-12. Its board of trustees consists of 15 lay members and five members of the Marist community.