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.