Ellsworth D. Schmitz

“Mr. Schmitz’s dedication, initiative, analytic capability, management skills, and professionalism have contributed significantly to the development of drug and alcohol abuse programs within the Department of Defense,” said a citation issued by Defense Secretary Harold Brown upon his retirement in 1979. He served for 30-plus years in the federal government.

In retirement, he played golf at Springfield Golf & Country Club, where he was known for arrow-straight drives and a masterful touch with the putter. He recorded four holes-in-one on the course. He also worked part-time with United Way and did volunteer work at a recreation center for mentally challenged adults.

But his principal passion was athletics at West Springfield High School, where his four children graduated.

“Smitty,” as he was known, became the revered “No. 1 fan” of the WSHS girls’ basketball teams – his daughter Joan was a former player – and he was honored by the undefeated state champion 1997 and 1999 teams with championship medals, a varsity letter and a team jacket. Perhaps his biggest thrill was being called onto the court after a 2010 district championship to participate in cutting down the net.

Mr. Schmitz was a native of Wausau, Wis., whose family struggled during the Depression to make ends meet. His boyhood home lacked hot water and one of the chores for him and his younger brother was foraging along the nearby railroad tracks for lumps of coal that had fallen from train car hoppers, to supplement the family’s supply of purchased coal for the furnace.

At Wausau High School, he excelled in academics, was elected student council president, was named to the National Honor Society and acted in the senior class play. He also played right halfback on the undefeated 1941 football team, whose left halfback, Elroy “Crazy Legs” Hirsch, went on to pro football stardom and induction to the Hall of Fame.

On Mr. Schmitz’s first play of the season that year, he ran 52 yards for a touchdown with a handoff from Mr. Hirsch. An announcer later referred to him as “One Play Schmitz,” a nickname that stuck.

His first job after high school was at a rubber plant, working the 5 p.m. to 3 a.m. shift six days a week manufacturing raincoats for the Army and Navy, and inhaling a toxic mist of olive green that also coated his skin and sickened him to near-death. While recovering, he was offered an office job by Employers Mutual Insurance, which had perused the Wausau High School list of top graduates in search of recruits. His stay there was cut short by World War II. He was inducted to the Army in 1943, but only after convincing officials that he had fully recovered from a dislocated shoulder suffered in football.

Then, pronounced unfit for overseas duty because of the old injury, he agreed to a painful operation and rehabilitation process rather than accept a discharge and return home. “Without hesitation I chose the surgery,” he wrote many years later.

After the war, he attended the University of Chicago on the GI Bill, earning a bachelor’s degree in philosophy. While working part-time as a mail clerk there, he met and began dating Betty Schuch, an employee of the university’s housing department. They married in 1950.

In the meantime, Mr. Schmitz began his career in government service at the U.S. Naval Training Center at Great Lakes, Ill., as a Grade 5 junior management analyst making $2,975 per year.

Within five years he had risen to Grade 12 and had accepted a position with the Navy Department in Washington in 1953, working first at the old Main Navy complex and later at the Pentagon.

He is survived by Betty, his wife of 61 years; sons Jonathan of Pittsburgh and Christopher (Carolyn) of Leesburg; daughters Joan Hynes (Paul) of San Diego and Karen Thurman (James) of King George, Va.; and six grandchildren.

Arrangements are private. The family suggests memorial contributions to West Springfield High School Spartan Boosters, c/o Andy Muir, director of student activities, 6100 Rolling Road, Springfield, VA 22152.