Schmit left proud legacy of service

There are few children who grew up in Fredonia during the last half century who didn’t know Ron Schmit, whether through the youth baseball program, getting a bicycle from him, receiving newspaper clippings about their sports and academic exploits or driving a school van for special-needs kids.

“I think most every family in Fredonia knew him,” Karen Schmit said of her father, who died Aug. 26 of complications resulting from diabetes. He was 83. 

“He just loved being with kids. There were some kids in town who didn’t have a father that he was a father figure to.”

Schmit was one of the co-founders of the Fredonia youth baseball league and was known for organizing bus rides to County Stadium so kids could go see the Milwaukee Brewers play.

He also was a member of the Fredonia Lions Club for more than 40 years, a Fredonia firefighter, a maintenance worker with the Village of Fredonia and active with the Divine Savior Catholic Church Human Concerns Ministry.

“He was a people person,” his wife Diana said.

One of Schmit’s hobbies was visiting rummage sales, where he would buy bicycles, fix them up and either sell them or give them away to local children.

“I don’t know how much he knew about bikes, but he would always have some,” Karen Schmit said. “There are still a lot of bikes in the garage. It was something he was still doing.”

Her father’s guiding principle, she said, was to give back to the community instead of just taking from it.

Schmit exhibited that with his decades of service to the Lions Club, longtime member Al Krier said.

“He was always involved in every activity that the Lions did,” Krier said. “He never missed a beat, even as his health failed.”

Schmit was twice elected club president and also served as district governor, overseeing 40 separate clubs. At his death, he was a member of the club’s board of directors.

“Ron was always a happy person, and if he had health issues, you didn’t know it by working with him and looking at him,” Krier said.

Schmit passed on his service-to-the-community ideal to his six children.

“He volunteered for everything and he always took us with him,” his daughter said. “He would get us up early in the morning to shovel sidewalks for elderly neighbors.”

Schmit was well known for selling newspapers after Mass at Divine Savior Church, which he did so elderly parishioners would not have to drive to the gas station to get a copy, she said.

His proudest achievement, and that of his family’s, however, was as a recovering alcoholic who was a member of Alcoholics Anonymous for 45 years, Karen Schmit said.

“I was 9 when he stopped drinking, and he hadn’t had a drink in all that time,” she said, noting she would often accompany him to AA meetings.

Her father sponsored several other AA members, she said.

“I’m sure he helped many other people in their journey to sobriety,” she said. “We were really proud of his sobriety all those years.”

A Mass of Christian burial will be held at 12:30 p.m. Friday, Sept. 4, at Divine Savior Parish–Holy Cross Chapel. Visitation will be from 9:30 a.m. to noon Friday at Eernisse Funeral Home in Port Washington.