Great Uncle August Schmidt

 August Schmidt was the brother of my Grandfather Herman Schmidt.

He was born on April 13, 1889 in Shitomir, Bessarabia, Russia.  His father Ludwig was 27, and his mother Helene (Mueller) was 29.  His mother passed away in abut 1992 when he was just 3 years old.

He emigrated to Canada in April 1911.  Immigration papers show that he had a prior residence in St. Boniface, Canada.  That was probably his entrance point to Canada, and he went from there to Winnipeg, Manitoba where Herman and Wilhelm were at the time.

He changed his name to Smith, to avoid discrimination and animosity for people from Germany in the years preceding WWI.

He left Winnipeg and went to Birch Lake, Saskatchewan where Herman had a homestead, along with Mary's brother August (Gus)Tobert.  There was some sort of dispute while there, and August left for Michigan, where he met and married Mariana Pagel.  They had one child during their marriage, Virginia, born in 1926.

Mariana had children from a previous marriage, Edith Schadler, Erving Schadler, and Dorothy Voss. In the 1930 Census, Edith S. was 15, Erving was 13, Dorothy was 8, and Virginia was 4.

In that same 1930 Census, August is shown as being employed as a carpenter in the home building industry.

After August left the family in Birch Lake Saskatchewan. there appeared to be little or no communication with the Schmidt family.  However, Herman and Mary sent Christmas cards to August and Mariana, which were not opened, and only found when Virginia opened a "forbidden" chest  to see what was in it, and found the unopened cards.  She sent a letter which was found by Aunt Ruth, and the two corresponded by mail.  Eventually, Herman and Mary visited them in Maryland, and there was a reunion there.  My family, Ben and Alma, along with their three children, also visited them in Maryland.  The event which caused the breakup in the Schmidt family was never discussed with any of us, and remains a mystery.

He died in Glen Burnie, Maryland, USA in 1983 at the age of 94.

I contacted Virginia a few years ago, after Mariana passed away and inquired about the chest to see if she had ever looked into it further.  She mentioned that there had been pictures from the "old country", and other personal things which may have yielded the source of the dispute, and family information from Bessarabia.  Unfortunately, Virginia must not have recognized the value of those documents and when they were cleaning up the house for sale, since they had put the chests (the one for August, and one for Mariana) in an out-building or shed.  They were then stolen, and that information source gone.  The people that stole the chests, probably just wanted the chests to sell, and would have dumped everything inside.

Virginia and her husband have since passed away.

Son David Robert Schmidt

Son David Robert Schmidt

David was born in El Paso, Texas on September 6, 1968 to George Raymond Schmidt and Sandra Susan Pearson.  He was born there while I was on a field assignment with Standard Oil Company of California (now Chevron Oil Company) as a refinery engineer.

Since I was subject to transfers while with Chevron, he had to adjust to multiple moves as I completed a number of assignments away from the San Francisco office.  El Paso, Texas was my first field assignment.

After three years in El Paso, we moved back to Pleasant Hill, California, where we purchased our first home on Maureen Lane.

Our  next move was to Mobile Alabama, while I worked on a project at Chevron's Pascagoula, Mississippi refinery during a refinery expansion project.  It was while there, that Dave's sister Christine Marie was born in Mobile, Alabama.

When I was later transferred to Belgium to work on a refinery expansion project in  Feluy, Belgium, we lived in Waterloo, Belgium, and I commuted back and forth to the refinery in Feluy.  Dave was on the young side to start school, so we planned to have him start in a kindergarten class, but that was not practical since transportation to the school, and logistics just didn't work out.  So, Dave started first grade at the Internationa School of Brussels (an American school) in Brussels.  Dave rode to school on a bus, with other local children, but since his day was shorter than the older children, we had to have him picked up each afternoon by a driver, whose only passenger was David, riding in the back seat like "Little Lord Fauntelroy", and he got the royal treatment from a very nice private driver.  In spite of being a bit behind the other first graders who had already attended kindergarten, Dave did well, and was awarded a  prize for the most-improved reader.

Sandy's teenage brother Ron was living with us at the time, so Dave had an "older brother-uncle" living with us during that time.  We were there a bit less than two years, before we were transferred back to the San Francisco area.

Dave attended elementary school in Pleasant Hill at the Strandwood Elementary School, which was within walking distance from home.   There he finished elementary school, then moved next door to the Gregory Lane Intermediate School, where he attended until he was ready for high school.

Dave learned to play the tenor saxophone and was in the Strandwood  Elementary School Band.  During the summers both he and Christy started with the Pleasant Hill Dolphins Swim Team, and both showed some skills.  At one point, Dave competed for the championship at the Contra Costa County Meet, tied for first in the semi final race, qualifying for the championship round.  Unfortunately, Dave may gave gotten rattled when the announcer mispronounced his name as "Davin" instead of David.  In any event, he had a bad start and wound up in second place in the finals.  He also did well in the breast stroke, and the medley races (back stroke, breast stroke, fly, and free stroke).

Then the decision needed to be made on which high school he should attend.  College Park High School, the high school he would normally attend was reportedly a hot-bed for marijuana use, so we started him instead at the private Contra Costa Christian High School near Larkey Park in Walnut Creek.  He attended there through his Sophomore year, but then he wanted to go to College Park, so he could get into a full size band, and have an opportunity to play football, and join the swim team.  So he did transfer to College Park High School for his Junior Year.  He did have the experience of several marching band trips, including one to Vancouver, BC, Canada.  He did not go out for swimming or football we had expected.

After his junior year, he recognized that he would be better off  back at Contra Costa Christian, so he transferred back and completed high school there.  He played in the small orchestra they had with his tenor sax, and was in several school concerts.

He started work on his college degree at Diablo Valley Community College (DVC).  During that time, he played tenor saxophone in the school orchestra, and joined the Swim Team.  DVC had a dominating championship swim team, and David competed well, and worked hard at it, even having to do swimming practices in the early morning while there was still frost on the pool deck.

After earning his AA Degree at DVC, Dave finished up his degree at California State College in Chico, California.  He majored in Sports Administration and completed his Bachelor's Degree in Recreational Management.

After college, Dave was employed at several positions in Hotel Administration.  He was the Desk Manager at several locations, including Zephyr Cove Presbyterian Conference Grounds at Lake Tahoe, Ghost Ranch Retreat Center in New Mexico, Tanaya Lodge in Yosemite Park, Vail Cascade Resort and Spa in Vail, Colorado, and then three years as the Member Services Director at the YMCA in the Presidio in San Francisco.  He had an apartment in the Presidio near Baker Beach while there with the YMCA.

While at Tanaya Lodge in Yosemite, he met Dusty, who became his companion for several years, and was truly his soul mate.

Dave loved fishing, "anywhere there was water", backpacking, skiing, swimming and scuba diving. He enjoyed a scuba diving trip with his uncle Ron Pearson to the Grand Banks near New Zealand, also to Cozumel in Mexico, Monterey and Catalina Island in California.  The Grand Banks trip included a "night-dive", which was a highlight of that trip.

Dave and I completed three fifty milers with the Boy Scouts, which included a fifty miler afloat on the Russian River.  Dave, Christy and I also made several back packing trips in the Sierras together.  Dave turned out to be a better fisherman than I was, with more success and bigger fish.  He managed to solve the mystery of catching steelhead while in Chico, at least some of that when he should have been in class.

 It was while he was at Tanaya Lodge that Dave was diagnosed as having a brain tumor, which turned out to be malignant, and could not be completely removed during surgery.  Surgery was followed by  radiation treatments, and the cancer appeared to have gone into remission.  It came back after about three years, while he was employed at the YMCA at the Presidio in San Francisco.  He had been doing very well at that position and had even been sent on several short training sessions at other YMCA locations as an instructor for YMCA sports trainers.

He went through several rounds of chemotherapy, and nothing seemed to work.  He passed away in Martinez at the home of his mother Sandra Schmidt on April 23, 2002.  Dave had joined the St. John's Presbyterian Church in San Francisco and had attended there for the last two years.  The church had been very supportive and he reportedly felt at home there.  His services were held at the church, with many friends from that church, and from St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church in Pleasant Hill, plus many family members and high school friends from Pleasant Hill in attendance.

Donations in his memory were made to the National Brain Tumor Foundation and the American Cancer Society in his name.

It was noted that there had been an unexplained high incidence of malignant brain tumors among young adults in Contra Costa County and the surrounding areas during that time.  There was no known cause or cure.

Mother Alma Bertha Schmidt

Mother Alma Marie (Rich) Schmidt

Alma Schmidt was born on Jan 30, 1913 to Reinhold Rich and Bertha Kison in Spokane, Washington.  Her father Reinhold had changed his name to Rich from Reich to avoid some of the discrimination against Germans in the period around WWI.  He used Rich in his Naturalization Papers and Military Registration Papers.

Reinhold was working as a transit driver and had a truck which he used to move people and their household goods.  This worked reasonably well until he was forced out of the business by the large moving companies that came in and took over most of the business.  He later worked for a local hardware company in Spokane.

Alma went to school in Spokane and graduated from Lewis and Clark High School.  She wanted to attend college but the family income did not allow for that.  She did attend a business school for two years and learned shorthand and office skills.  At that time, school wasn't considered to be particularly important for girls, and thus was not  a priority for her family.  Her brother Elmer did go to a "Teachers College" after also graduating from Lewis and Clark, and he spent many years as a Manual Arts teacher at Lewis and Clark High School.

I don't believe that Alma was ever employed using her business school education, but was married to Ben Schmidt on May 26, 1933, and became a housewife and raised her family in the Spokane Valley, east of Spokane.  She had three children, Robert Benjamin in 1935, Helen Marie in 1936, and George Raymond in 1938.

They moved into a house in the Spokane Valley when they were married, and were greeted into their new home by family tricksters who thought it would be funny to plug the chimney, so the house filled up with smoke when they started the fire in the stove.  Fortunately, no serious damage was done.

Ben went to work for the local dairy, Early Dawn Dairy and did farming on the side.  He raised vegetables like corn, beans, potatoes, cucumbers, carrots.  The crop was taken to the Farmer's Market in Spokane for sale to grocery stores.  The crop also helped provide for the family food throughout the  year.  Canning fruit and vegetables was a mainstay for the family food supply.  They also typically raised a calf which was raised for beef.  Alma became attached to the calves which she cared for and fed.  One year, they put they calf out in a pasture owned by a neighbor.  Later the calf was found with his neck caught in the fork of a tree, which was a heart-breaker for Alma.

They also raised a large crop of cucumbers for pickles one year, that they worked hard on, including Alma and part of the time even other family members.  They harvested the cucumbers and sent them to the person that was supposed to make them into pickles for sale.  Unfortunately, he didn't know what he was doing and used iodized salt, which made the pickles soft and unsaleable.  A hard years worth of hard work and what was to be their main cash crop went for nothing.

Ben eventually went to work for the Northern Pacific Railway, and made this his career for about 40 years.  During all that time, he also built houses that we moved into, and lived in while he built another house, which we moved into when it was finished, then the first house was sold. This was repeated many times while Bob, Helen, and I were in school.

We lived in downtown Spokane for a few years where Bob and Helen started "grade school" (elementary school).  The house was near the home of Grandmother Rich.  He then built a home in Veradale, which was next to an apple orchard, and the local railroad tracks that led down toward the  Veradale Grade School.  This was a two story house, where Bob and I had our bedroom upstairs.  From there we moved to a house that was not yet finished, and lived in the basement while building work continued above us in the daytime, with sawdust drifting down on us for a time until the permanent floor was finished.  It was in that house that I started Grade School.

That was the beginning of many such moves.  The last move was to the duplex that Ben built on a slight hill above the south side of the freeway in Opportunity.  It was designed to provide a separate place for Grandma Rich (then Siewert), so they could be near her and provide for her needs.  Grandma later passed away there on Feb 12, 1991, as did Ben later on Aug 6, 1989.

Just a year or so before Helen retired from the mission field, she had a new single story house (with full basement) built in Opportunity, Washington, (now Spokane Valley, Washington).  Alma moved in and lived there while Helen finished up in Cameroon.  They shared the house when Helen came home on furlough, and had planned to spend many years together there.  Unfortunately, Alma passed away before Helen came back to Spokane permanently after her retirement.

Ben and Alma were married at the Arthur Street Baptist Church in Spokane.  Families from both sides (Ben's family, Alma's family, and Grandma Schmidt's Tobert family) were also members there at the time.  Both were very active and supportive of this church.  When the language was changed from German to English, both the Schmidt and Tobert families left and went to the Valley Baptist Church in Opportunity, Washington.  Ben and Alma's family and Grandma Rich continued with that church until it was eventually sold, because of structural issues (a rock foundation), and the new Terrace Heights Baptist Church was built a few miles away.  Her brother Elmer Rich laid the brick for the new building.

Alma had always been very active in the church.  At times she was the church treasurer, and for many years was the choir director.  During the earlier years, she played the violin to accompany church singing.  She was also active in the Missionary Society work, making quilts and blankets and diapers, etc. to be sent to the Cameroonian Mission Field.  She was one of the primary financial supporters for the church during the last years of the Terrace Heights Baptist Church.

Even after Ben passed away, Alma and Helen continued their membership there, even while Helen was in the Republic of Cameroon as a medical missionary.  However, the membership diminished, and could not financially support it, and the building was eventually sold.  When Alma found out the church was being sold, and the church congregation dissolved, she decided that her mission in life was finished and got her affairs in order on a table, including arranging all official paperwork, and the order of services that she had planned.  She passed away peacefully in her sleep on May 28, 2003.

Great Uncle Simon Kison

Great Uncle Simon Kison

Simon was born in Kulm, Akkerman, Bessarabia on October 20, 1889.  His parents were Frederick Kison (1861-1916) and Rosina Radke (1861-1939).  They immigrated to the United States in 1893 and settled in the Ritzville, Washington area where they farmed and raised their young family.  Simon was only 4 years old when they arrived in America.

He had a brother Harlipl  born in 1891, also in Bessarabia, Kulm, Akkerman, Bessarabia, then under the control of Russia.  He had a sister Erna Katerina (1892), and Bertha (my Grandmother) (1893-1991), Gustav (1896), Daniel (1901-1953), Alvina (1903-1953).

Simon was Grandmother Bertha Kison's brother.  Both he his brother Daniel served in World War I. I have a picture of both of them in uniform.  However, there is also a document that suggests that Daniel reserved a deferment from active duty since he had a wife and children to support at the time. That experience forever changed his life as an extremely tragic event in World History.  The fighting was brutal and painful in all respects with such enormous loss of life.  Those who volunteered went to fight in the war, thinking that this was "the war to end all wars", but as history has shown, it was nothing close to that with so million of lives lost on all sides with no lasting benefit for anyone.

He entered the service on October 6, 1917 in the Machine Company, 36th Infantry 91st  Division.  He was a  member of the AEF (Allied Expeditionary Force) in France and Belgium July 6, 1918 through April 15, 1919.  He was honorably discharged on May 1, 1919.  His battles and engagements included the Meuse Argonne 1st Phase, Meuse Argonne 2nd Phase, and St. Mihil Last Phase, Lys-Scheldt 1st Phase, Defensive Sector to November 11th, 1918.

Simon was deeply affected by the horrors of fighting in the trenches in horrible conditions with many dying around him.  He wrote a short book describing his experiences that was never published. At the time, there were many similar books written, and probably many others were also not published.  He spent years working on it, editing and revising, using a manual typewriter with many hand-written notes and corrections.  Many Sunday afternoons, he was invited to go home to dinner with us, but declined because he needed to work on his book.  In his book, he describes his vision of Christ in the battlefield, and clearly had mad a major commitment to Christianity as a result.  I have a copy of the book, probably the only one, that was given to me by my mother.

When he returned from the war, he found that the girl he intended to marry had not waited for him, and was already married.  As far as we know he had no other female relationships.

After the war he moved to Spokane and worked as a laborer in a meat packing plant.  His hands were often cracking and sore due to contact with a pickling juices used to preserve the meat.  Later he went to work for the Jensen-Byrd Hardware Store in Spokane.

He attended the Arthur Street Baptist Church (formerly German Baptist) in Spokane, which became the North American Baptist Church after the English language replace German as the basic language.  When the primary services were changed to English, Simon took over preaching in German in the basement part of the church for those who preferred to worship in German.

At one point he moved to an area just outside of Spokane (Moran Prairie) where he bought a chicken farm.  He raised chickens from chicks and raised them to market size.   Unfortunately, he was "taken in" by a neighbor who conned him out of the chickens and he made nothing out of his work and expense.

Late in life, he moved back to Spokane and bought a small house at South 2110 Myrtle, near the new church that the former German Baptist Church (then North American Baptist Church) after the Arthur Street Baptist Church building was sold to another group.  The  name for the new building was changed to the Terrace Heights Baptist Church.

Simon passed away on 11 June 1968.  He was buried at Riverside Memorial Park, Spokane, Washington'  Services were held on June 18,1968 at the Gothic Chapel of Hazen & Jaeger Funeral Home.  The Pastor officiating was Myrl E. Thieses, pastor of the Terrace Heights Baptist Church.

George Raymond Schmidt

George Raymond Schmidt (myself) was born on January 14, 1938 in Spokane, Washington to Benjamin Gustav Schmidt and Alma Bertha Schmidt. The  delivery took place in the front bedroom of Grandmother Bertha Rich's home on 12th Avenue in Spokane.  Home birth was not uncommon in that time frame, and the doctor came to the house both to save expense, and to ensure that someone would be present to help in case the delivery came when Ben was away at work.

I started grade school at the Veradale Grade School in the Spokane Valley.  I was most anxious to start school since when Bob and Helen went off to school, I was home alone.  I watched them walk down the railway tracks next to our home, wishing to join them.  Instead, I sometimes got to talk to the railway workers that came by on a hand pumped work car.  My parents found out about a kindergarten school that had started up in the church basement next to the grade school.  I was able to attend for one day, before it was determined that it would be too expensive for the family budget.

By the time I graduated from the sixth grade, there was a new junior high school that opened up in Opportunity.  I joined the first seventh grade class in the school, and was in the first class to complete the full three years there.  When it came time to transfer my school records I was asked if I wanted to change my last name from Smith to Schmidt.  I quickly agreed to the change, because I knew that was my real name.  I had been originally enrolled as George Smith, since that was during World War II, and there was concern that the German name would cause me problems.

At Central Valley Junior High School, I became involved in the agriculture class, that was part of the Future Farmers of America.  Since our family had the farming background, this seemed like a natural thing to do.  I started with a ewe that had already been bred.  (Columbia-Ramboulet breed).  She later had twins that were very entertaining watching the lambs bouncing around, and climbing on top of her to get a better view of their surroundings.  I later added a steer that Ben bought at the stock yards in Spokane.  That was the first of two that I raised, along with fitting and showing at the County Fair.  Eventually I was loaned two Sears Roebuck Foundation ewes, that had also been previously bred.  One bore twins, the other had a still born lamb.  One of the twins I "castrated" and raised for the County Fair.  It earned the Reserve Champion of Breed (second place), and a Blue Ribbon for fitting and showing.

I graduated from Central Valley High School in 1956 as the Salutatorian, not quite matching my goal of Valedictorian.  I played football in Junior High School and High School and earned letters each year.  I also played basketball until Sophomore year when the coach suggested that I go out for track and field instead.  I started out with the "broad jump", low and high hurdles, and the 440 and 880 yard dash.  The best year involved our team winning the 440 yard low hurdles in first, second, and third place at the District Meet, advancing to the Tri-District. (I was third after the winning Senior, and a classmate that was clearly the best athlete in our class.)  At the Tri-District meet I suffered from the effects of a Tetanus shot, and was running a fever--I could not get over even the first hurdle.

I had been given the Tetanus shot in preparation for attending the All State Boys State convention.  Noone suggested that the shot would have that kind of effect.  Needless to say, the track coach was very upset, as I was.

When it came time for college, Helen was already at the University of Washington, so it seemed natural that I would also go there.  My high school classmates split between Washington State College (referred to derogatorially as the "cow-college", now Washington State  University).  Since I had done well in math and science classes, engineering was my first choice, but I also considered Pharmacy, since that had at least some potential of owning my own business eventually.  I visited the Pharmacy Department, and told the interviewer that I was also considering Engineering.  He suggested that I go ahead and visit the Engineering Department.  So, I went over there, and in the end enrolled at the College of Engineering in Chemical Engineering.

In my freshman year, I stayed in the college dormitory, but got the opportunity to stay as a "house boy" at the Baptist-Disciple Student Center earning my keep by doing cleaning and yard work, and setting up and clearing up afterwards for meetings at the center.  I was responsible for my own meals, but had access to the kitchen.  That helped considerably with costs, since I was on a very limited budget.  My parents had contributed $1,000 toward my college education, and I almost stretched that out for the four years, by being frugal, and finding what work I could during the summers in Spokane.  Unfortunately, that was a period of recession in Spokane that lasted for several years, and few summer jobs were available.

During high school, I had a job with the Water District as a "ditch walker", scheduling irrigation for Spokane Valley farmers, and routing the water to their farms by starting up the pumps and opening and closing valves to get the water into the right lines.  This meant being on the job 24 hours a day while the weekly run was in progress.  Some neighboring farmers made the valve switches to take over water from their neighbors, but major switches always involved going out to the fields at all hours to make the line changes.

Unfortunately for my income situation, the irrigation schedule started before the school year ended, and they would not keep the job open for me.  So I took whatever jobs I could find, including jobs with the railroad that Ben lined up for me.  Some of that involved cleaning railroad cars, between shipments shoveling and sweeping out the debris, and rotten fruit in the refrigerator cars, then washing them down with a hose.  Other jobs involved work at the ice plant, taking 100 pound ice blocks out of the freezer, and moving them into storage.  Later, we would take the blocks out of storage and put them on a conveyer to the loading rack, and put the ice into the ice area at the ends of the cars.  For me this was back-breaking work for several house followed by short breaks when I would rest in my car before the next train came in.

There were more even more menial jobs as a "red-cap" cleaning spitoons (since I was the lowest on the totem pole), and helping get luggage to the trains.  That job didn't pan out very well, since the railroad decided I was too young, and I didn't even get paid for my work.  I also worked as  a mail handler, loading and unloading mail and freight as trains came in.  For a while I also worked as an ice inspector, checking the refrigerator cars for ice, and making sure the drains were not plugged or frozen.

One summer, I spent more time looking for work that actually working.  I wound up taking a job for about a month driving a wheat truck for $1 and hour.  I was only paid for the time after we got to the field, not including travel time in the farmer's truck, and then the farmer did not even want to pay his part of the social security, and I had to fight to get that paid.

One summer, I was hired to work for the electrician my dad used, as an assistant electrician.  During that time I wound up installing the wall switch boxes in brother Bob's house that he was building.  After about a month of this, I was layed off, since business was poor, and the electrician didn't think he could afford to keep me on.

Eventually, graduation approached, and the interview process started with potential employers.  I did multiple interviews, including Standard Oil Company of California (now Chevron Oil), Texaco, DuPont, and Proctor and Gamble.  The process included a trip to DuPont in Delaware.  That was my first flight on a commercial air-liner.  Proctor and Gamble in the San Diego area offered a month working in their soap manufacturing plant, which I took advantage of.  All made offers, and I decided on Standard Oil in San Francisco for $515 per month.

Starting work with Standard Oil involved an understanding that I would need to put in my three years in the Air Force to fulfill my obligation from Reserve Officers Training (ROTC).  So, I went down to San Francisco in June 1960 and worked for two to three weeks before taking off to Sacramento, California at McClellan Air Force Base.  I was there for one year working as a Nuclear Research Officer,  before being transferred to Yokota Air Force Base in Japan, just north of Tokyo.  While there I had short assignments in Alaska, and Tripoli in Libya.

I kept in touch with Standard Oil and let them know that I was sticking with my plans to come back to Chevron, and letting them know what my schedule was.  I eventually asked for an increase in pay since I had three years of "experience".  I was given a raise to $600 per month.  I returned to Standard Oil in mid-year 1963 credited with three years of service with Standard Oil.  I found an apartment in Oakland, California and commuted by bus to San Francisco.  I started out as an Instrument Engineer, then worked on Piping and Instrument Diagrams, and piping design.

In 1966 after three years, I was transferred to El Paso, Texas at the 25,000 barrel per day refinery that Standard Oil operated as Standard Oil Company of Texas.  I was a refinery engineer, working on small  design and construction projects in the refinery.

Before the transfer to El Paso, I had been dating Sandra Susan Pearson, who had the apartment next door to me in Oakland.  We were married in June, 1966 before the move, and completed our Spokane and Canada honeymoon by moving to El  Paso.  Our son Dave was born there.

After the first move to El Paso, we returned to San Francisco, and bought our first home in Pleasant Hill on Maureen Lane. That lasted until our second move to El Paso for a one year assignment for a design and construction project.  That was followed by a return to San Francisco.

The next move was to Pascagoula, Mississippi for a refinery expansion project for about another three years.  We lived in Mobile, Alabama, and I commuted daily to Pascagoula.  Our daughter Christine Marie was born there.  Then another move  back to San Francisco, moving back into our Pleasant Hill home.

A short assignment followed in Burnaby, British Columbia in Canada, without the family.

Next move:  Feluy, Belgium for a refinery expansion.  We lived in Waterloo, and I commuted daily to Feluy.  Dave started elementary school there.  Sandy took classes at the American School of Brussels, and became fluid in French.  We managed to do a fair bit of travelling around Europe while there, including a Greece land tour plus Greek Island cruise.  After about 2-1/2 years, we came back to San Francisco.

These "foreign" assignments were mixed in with assignments at the Richmond Refinery, including a project to reconstruct the TKC-TKN facility (Heavy Crude Oil Processing Plants) that had been destroyed by fire.  I also an assignment without family to construct the Gaviota Crude Processing Plant near Santa Barbara.

While on the Gaviota project our marriage fell apart after Sandra became involved with our pastor.  I had been living in Santa Barbara or Gaviota, and returning every other weekend for about 1-1/2 years.  Divorce followed without my knowing what the issue was, since she refused to discuss it.

After a few years, I bought four apartment buildings in Santa Cruz, a fourplex, two triplexes and a duplex for a total of twelve apartments.  I held that property for about ten years and then sold the property.

After the divorce, Chevron wanted me to take an assignment in Port Arthur, Texas for refinery design and construction work.  I declined since I needed to be available to manage the apartment buildings, plus I didn't want to move out of the area so soon after the divorce and be unable to keep in contact with Dave and Christy.  Later, they again asked me to go to the same project and I again declined.  With threats of how this was going to affect my career, I elected to take retirement and left Chevron.

I later was employment with Jacobs Engineering on projects at the Exxon Refinery in Benicia, California, and after that with Chemical Design Company in the Richmond Refinery, plus work on an offshore former Chevron platform.  The last two jobs were as a Contracts Engineer with Pipeline Systems Incorporated (PSI), a pipeline company specializing in slurry pipelines for mining projects, and then Golder Associates doing work on natural gas pipelines for PG&E.

I met Jane Eller Gauthier and we were married on November 27, 1999.  I had purchased our home in Concord, California previously.  We have now been happily married for 20 years.  In recent years we have taken several European land trips, and cruises.  Our favorite has been Viking River Cruises, which we took on three tours.  Others were with Holland America, and a Hawaii cruise with Princess Cruise Line.

Sister Helen Marie Schmidt

Sister Helen Marie Schmidt

Helen Marie Schmidt was born on November 16, 1936 to Benjamin Gustav Schmidt and Alma Bertha Rich in Spokane, Washington.

Helen and Bob started grade school in Spokane while Ben and Alma were living in Spokane.  Then the family moved to the Spokane Valley, where she attended Veradale Grade School, then the Central Valley Junior High School (in the first class to graduate from the new Junior High School).  She then graduated from Central Valley High School.

Her University life started at the University of Washington in Seattle, Washington as the first member of our family to graduate from college.  Her next step was to the Women's Medical College of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia for her Medical Degree.  She then went on to Virginia Mason Hospital in  Seattle for her Residency in Surgery.

After completing her Residency, she went to Alaska to fill in for a doctor with a practice providing medical care to the fishermen and local residents in Alaska.  The doctor had gone back to Seattle for medical care himself that was unavailable to him in Alaska.  While there, the doctor she was replacing unexpectedly passed away.   Helen then purchased the practice, and stayed there for several years.

She then went on to the next step in her life plan, to serve as a surgeon and Medical Missionary in Cameroon, Africa.  She served there for 34 years.

Bob, Helen and I had been going to church summer camps for several years as teenagers, and were exposed to medical missionaries, nurses and doctors, who were serving in Cameroon, and other foreign missionary fields.  These contacts inspired Helen to follow in their steps,which she did.

Helen's education and training were a costly and difficult process, since Ben and Alma were not wealthy by any means.  Our parents provided most of the costs.  Some minimal financial help did come from the North American Baptist Convention to cover part of her medical school costs.

At the time when Helen started her service in Cameroon, there was little in the way of modern medical care in the area.  In fact, many depended on the local witch doctors for care when they became ill, and would only come to the American hospital after all other options were not successful.  In many cases, they came after it was already too late for proper care and healing.  The Bamenda Hospital may have had up to 100 beds when she arrived.  Over the years this expanded to several times the number of beds, with additional doctors and nurses added.  Additional hospitals  have been added, and there is now a Catholic hospital in Bamenda as well.

Jane and I went over to Cameroon along with our mother Alma for the 50th anniversary of the hospital.  Jane had worked as an office manager for a group of doctors, so she has been exposed to modern medical practices.  We were curious as to what the wooden peg boards in the outer courtyard of the hospital were used for.  We found out that they wash the rubber gloves, and put them out on the pegs to dry.  Many things are reused that are being thrown away here.  Clothes and towels were draped over bushes to dry.  The patients have their families come with them to the hospital, and do their laundry, and provide their meals.  Most of the equipment used in the hospital come from donations from US hospitals and medical practices, as the Americans get new equipment and donate the used equipment for use in the Cameroon missionary hospitals.

At the 50th anniversary celebration, Cameroonian government officials came to honor Helen and one of the nurses that had been serving at the  hospital for decades.

After Helen retired from her work in Cameroon, she became the Doctor of Record for a home health care organization that provides home medical services for the elderly who cannot readily get in to a doctor's office.  At the age of 83, she is still  providing needed medical services for those in need.

Father Benjamin Schmidt and Alma Rich

Benjamin Gustav Schmidt was born in Winnipeg, Canada on May 11, 1913. to Herman Schmidt and Mary Tobert.  Both Herman and Mary had emigrated from Europe in the area of Volhynia, Russia, now Ukraine.  Herman was born in Shitomir (or Zhytomir) and Mary was born in Lodz, Poland.  They both eventually lived for a time in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, where they were married and had their first two children, Benjamin Gustav, and Esther.

Herman and Mary and their family left their homestead in Birch Lake, Saskatchewan, and lived in Biggar, Saskatchewan for a time, before moving to Spokane Washington, where Herman farmed vegetables and fruit crops for the Spokane markets.

Alma Bertha Schmidt was born in Ritzville, Washington on May 26, 1933 to Reinhold Reich and Bertha Kison.  Reinhold had immigrated to America from Bessarabia, Russia (now Ukraine) to Ritzville, where he met Bertha Kison, and later moved to Spokane, Washington.  They were married in Ritzville, but set up their home in Spokane where Alma Bertha was born, along with a brother Elmer and Rose Marie.

Reinhold changed his name to Rich to Americanize the name and avoid discrimination against Germans during the period of World War I.

Both Ben and Alma attended business schools after high school.  Alma graduated from Lewis and Clark High School in Spokane, then went to a business college (Spokane Business College?).  Both of them were smart enough for college, and would have loved to attend, but the economy was such that this was not possible.

Ben started school in the Spokane Valley at Veradale Grade School.  He knew no English, since only German was spoken at home (except when Herman and Mary spoke Polish so they could speak privately.  Ben was forbidden to speak English at home, which complicated the language learning process.  He was interested in playing basketball at school after classes, but Herman insisted that he come right home after school to help out with farming chores.  He graduated from Central Valley High School.  Bob, Helen and I all attended Veradale Grade School, and Central Valley High School also.

Both the Schmidt and Rich families attended the German Baptist Church in Spokane on Arthur Street, where they met and married on May 26, 1933.  They had three children by the time Ben was 23 years old, Robert Ben, Helen Marie, and George Raymond.

Ben farmed and raised vegetables and fruit, like his father before him, but also worked at the Early Dawn Dairy to support the family.  Later, he went to work for the Northern Pacific Railway as a railway clerk.  Along with his railroad work, he built homes as a side job.  He would build a home, move into it, then start another, before repeating the process.  Sometimes the new homes would not be completely finished before needing to move out after the current home was sold.  That meant a  lot of moving, but fortunately all in the same Central Valley school district so school changes were never needed.

Some of the early home sales meant innovative living arrangements, such as the summer he rented a cabin at Newman Lake, where we all had the enjoyment of living in a lake cabin, swimming, fishing and boating while Ben was a work, both for the railroad, and working on getting our new home ready to move into.  On one such move, he bought a home in Spokane that was across the street from Grandma Rich (Siewert).  We moved back into the Spokane Valley in time for the start of high school in the fall.

Ben would work on his home building in the morning before going to work, put in his full day, then come home for dinner, and go out again to work on the new homes.  When neighbors complained about the noise in the evenings, he had to cut his evenings short.  Bob and I would work with him after school, cleaning up scrap and sweeping sawdust, and would also be out there with him on weekends, with only Sunday's off.

Most of Ben's railroad years were spent working in a set of caboose cars that were set up on a siding above the tracks outside the Kaiser Aluminum Rolling Mill in Trentwood, Washington.  However, at times he would be "bumped" by another railroad employee, a person who had himself been bumped, and was thus given the priviledge of bumping into another person's job where he had more "seniority".  After a time, sometimes a few years, Ben would bump back into the same job in Trentwood.

Ben had heart issues, and had an aorta heart valve replaced with a "pig valve".  During the surgery, the original valve that was to be used was found to be the wrong size, and that meant that he was under anesthesia longer than normal, while another suitable valve was found.  As a result, he developed memory issues that worsened as he got older.  The symptoms were like Altzheimers, but was not officially called that.  The heart issue contributed to his death.  It is of interest to note that Esther, Ruth and Robert, and possibly also Bill had Altzheimers type symptoms near the end of their lives.

The heart surgery happened shortly after he retired from the railroad, and after working hard all his life, doing essentially two plus jobs, and deserving good retirement years, he was denied the experience of a long healthy retirement.  This also put a heavy load on Alma who was determined not to put him into a nursing home.  In the later years, she would take him part of a day to a day care facility, so she could have a break, do grocery shopping etc.

Alma cared for him at home as long as she was able, but the issues grew to the point where she could no longer keep it up, and for a short time, he was in a nursing facility, until his death.

Alma continued to live in the duplex they had built for themselves and Grandma Siewert,  until after Grandma Siewert passed away.  Helen later had a home built for them, and Alma lived there while Helen was in the mission field in Cameroon.  Alma passed away during the last year of Helen's time in Cameroon, just before they would have been able to enjoy the final years together.