Klaus Dieter Schmidt

Klaus Dieter Schmidt died at home in Brooklin, Maine, on February 2, 2017, at age 86. He would laugh to know he shared this day with a groundhog. His sense of humor was one of his many sterling qualities.

Born May 8, 1930, he experienced a disastrous childhood and young adolescence in Hitler’s Germany, In December 1944, his family and his uncle’s family made a failed attempt to escape to Switzerland. However, as a 14 year old he and three younger cousins did make it safely into that country. He was picked up by a Swiss family (the mother was American) who took him in as a foster child. After five years, at age 19, he finished high school and immigrated into the United States, with the help of his American foster mother.

He was sponsored by my Wheelwright family here who were friends with his Swiss family. He and I were married six months later, June 28,1950. We had daughters whom we raised in San Rafael and San Francisco.

He loved being an American with its vitality and optimism, after the despair and misery he experienced in Europe. He flourished as a father, personally and professionally and was forever grateful for the opportunity afforded him.

He had a fine career, first in business, including creating a manufacturing company, Kimball and Schmidt in San Rafael: then in academia. He earned a Ph.D. and became a professor at San Francisco State University and then Associate Dean of the School of Business.

In 1985, it was his idea that we should move to Maine where we have lived for 31 years in what had been an old boat yard. It has been a wonderful life, living literally on the water. Here he wrote his autobiography, Spy for Life.

Klaus is survived by me, Lynda his wife of 66 years, and his two daughters, Karen Calley of Monterey and Claudia Lewis of Novato, He is also survived by four grandchildren, Megan and Cortney Lewis and Christopher and Katie Cully.

He was a charming, engaged, accomplished person, with a warmth and enthusiasm for life that was a pleasure to live with. May he rest in peace, No services at this time.