Rotary Remembers

Neil Schmidt

Dear Rotarians and Friends, 

With regrets I must inform you that our friend, past Rotarian, and former Superintendent of Schools Neil Schmidt was called to greater service by his Creator.   He was a very special person and will be sorrowfully missed.   

There will be a memorial service Jan 15, 2005 for Neil.   As more information is available, you will be informed.   

Until then,  - Soft and Safe to thee, our friend, be thy resting place!   Bright and Glorious be thy rising from it.   May the earliest buds of Spring unfold their beauties o’er thy resting place, and there may be the sweetness of the Summer’s last rose linger longest!  Though the winds of Autumn may destroy the loveliness of their existence, yet the destruction is not final, and in the Springtime, they shall surely bloom again.   So, in the bright morning of the resurrection thy spirit shall spring into newness of life and expand in immortal beauty, in realms beyond the skies.   Until then, dear Neil, until then, farewell! 

Lionel Ruhman

04-05 President - Rotary Club of Santa Monica

About Neil Schmidt as a Rotarian

 Because Neil Schmidt was the Superintendent of the Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District, he was asked to Co-chair our first major literacy project in 1995 -96 when John McIntire, as President, chose Literacy as his major project for the year. Karen Baker was asked to be Neil’s Co-chair and Shirley Dowling was in charge of  working with them as Director of Vocational Service on John’s Board. With advice from Esther Johnson, our Executive Secretary, on what she had seen work at the District level and what was possible within our club to involve our members, John, Neil, Karen and Shirley spent many planning hours getting a Literacy Committee and finding a project that would actively involve many of our Rotarians. After a lengthy meeting with a Reading Specialist from the District that Neil brought in to give us advice on the needs of the District to improve Reading, we decided on a rather ambitious program of having our Rotarians read to children in K-3  for one-half hour period in their Santa Monica classroom.  At that time the Rotarian presented the class with the books we bought new and donated to their classroom libraries.

The first year we had a budget of $3000. Our club bought at a discounted rate less than 200 books to be given to 50 classrooms in five schools designated by Neil to be in most need of additional books. After the project was put together, Neil, Karen and I evaluated how successful it was and Neil suggested we make it a yearly event. So Neil’s suggestion that we make “Rotary Reads to Kids” an annual literacy project and Neil’s leadership made our club a model for the District. The following year we won a “Significant Achievement Award from Rotary International for our “Rotary Reads to Kids” program. His contribution to Rotary in 1995 and until he left the District will always be remembered, especially by those of us who worked with him on “Rotary Reads to Kids”. “Rotary Reads to Kids” is still going strong in our club and we have placed more then 10,000 books in our classrooms and classrooms in Compton and Watts with the help of the LA Times “Reading by 9” program.

.....Shirley Dowling