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.
Wednesday, May 6, 2020
Tuesday, May 5, 2020
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.
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.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)