Richard Arnold Schmidt

Richard Arnold Schmidt was born on December 5, 1950 to Bryon Schmidt and Margie Langford Schmidt in Alameda, California. He was the second of what would become 6 siblings; Sharon (Craig, deceased ) Hicks of Grants Pass, OR, Robert or Bobby (Kelly ) of Santa Rosa, CA, Terrie(Emery) Parrish of Albany, OR, Judith or Judy (Ray) Cook of Red Bluff, CA, and Patricia or Pattie (Ken, deceased) Williams of New Caney, TX. As anyone who EVER met him would know, he was "raised on a sheep ranch in Northern California." A somewhat dubious claim according to his siblings. But what is true is that they had a glorious childhood riding bikes and running in the Santa Rosa area of the Golden State of California. In his teens his step-father, George Evans moved the family up to a small town in the hills, Annapolis, California. He, Bobby, and Terrie attended high school in Point Arena, a coastal town some 38-45 miles and a 2 hour bus ride down from Annapolis. After graduation and a short stint working for a new State Park, Salt Point, he joined the Navy to see the world. This was during the Vietnam conflict. He was sent from Northern California to San Diego in Southern California for six weeks of Boot Camp. He had requested to become a Sea Bee, but of course that billet was full, so he attended ADR School to learn how to repair propeller planes. From there he was sent to Millington, TN, not even close to the ocean, a land locked Naval Aviation base. On his 20th birthday several of his friends wanted to give him a birthday party but he had no date. So a friend's girlfriend set him up with Susan Morton a student nurse at Methodist Hospital School of nursing. He was dazzled by her beauty and superior mind (guess who's writing this) and in April they were engaged. On January 8, 1972 after Susan graduated from Nursing School they married and settled in an apartment near Methodist Hospital where Susan got her first nursing Job. Richard never got to serve on a ship or leave the Millington Naval Air Base. Their first son, Joseph Ryan Schmidt (Haley) was born on July 29, 1974. Richard was honorably discharged from the Navy on 12/09/1975. He then went to work for a heating and plumbing company as an Apprentice Plumber. But the economy changed and they were not building as many new houses. About that time the owner operator of Paddock Pools called the plumbing company looking for a helper and Richard was sent. As he said, he quickly learned that the clear water was much preferable to the brown water. Soon they welcomed a second son, Stephen Matthew Schmidt (Melissa)born 6/9/1977 and continued to build their family and lives in the Raleigh area. Richard learned how to care for, repair and treat the water in swimming pools and he was quiet good at this. So a Swimming Pool Repair Technician was developed. He continued to work for Paddock pools but eventually he and Tim Ricks decided to start their own company and formed Town & Country Pools. But when Tim decided to return to his family farm in Mississippi to help his father , Richard began working with Memphis Pools.

Richard was a member of Scenic Hills United Methodist church and served on various committees including the Trustees. His wife was asked to be part of a Volunteers in Mission medical team in Estonia and Richard was invited to come along. He would be the Logistics guy. The United Methodist church was in the process of building a new church in Estonia, the Agape Church. As the medical team was touring the hospital and clinics and learning about how they provided care in Estonia, Richard and his team were to gather supplies and equipment for a cookout for the community in a nearby park. He used his ingenuity to take a metal snow boot scraper, clean it, and wrap it in aluminum foil to grill hot dogs and hamburgers over dug out pits filled with charcoal which he had to find also. He found a dairy and got milk and cream to use in the hand cranked ice cream makers we brought with us. He also tracked down some cherry preserves for more flavor and variety. But he noticed as the people walked away eating their ice cream they were spitting something out, cherry pits! The preserves still had pits in them. He learned a lot about the people of Estonia their lives and their desires for their children's future that is the same as ours.

Back home Richard went to Rogers Pools to work with Bill Rogers of Rogers' Pool company and to help mentor his son Greg in Pool service and supplies. Unfortunately after 20+ years Mr. Rogers decided to shut down the Service department but they still must provide warranty work for their owner andRichard agreed to provide this if they would give him their client list. This was agreed upon by both. So Richard began the process of again opening his own company. Now he had to come up with a name. A name that was simple but catchy. Once again his beautiful wife (I'm still writing this) came up with the perfect name, "That Pool Guy". She gave this example; the wife tells her husband, "The pool is beginning to look green." The husband replies, "Why don't you call That Pool Guy." As many of you know, Richard worked hard to grow his business by being honest with you and providing good service. His younger son, Stephen soon became his employee and also learned how to care for and clean swimming pools. Richard sent him to tech schools so he could learn how to provide all the newest innovations for pools. The company provided a good income for the Schmidts. In December of 2016 Susan decided to retire after 45 years with Methodist. She thought maybe she could just take it easy and volunteer with various agencies. Richard decided to do the same and turned his client list over to Stephen who changed the company name to Schmidt's Pool Service. After retirement we continued to travel and scuba dive in the Caribbean. We also decided to drive cross country to California to be with his Mom for her 90 birthday. It was a wonderful 28 day trip visiting friends, and family and visiting several National Parks. Then Covid hit and the world went into lock down, so our Cayman trips were cancelled. We visited outside on the patio with friends when we could. Then we were blessed to be allowed to babysit a beautiful Bonus Granddaughter, Winter Grace, aka Winnie as her Mom and Dad continued to go to their jobs in healthcare. This little girl brought such joy to Richard and she quickly began calling him Papa which soon became Papa Island. They fished together, they read together, they rode the 4 wheeler and she learned to steer the zero turn lawn mower. He was also blessed with his grandchildren Collin Davis and Sara Schmidt but was unable to spend as much time with them as they grew up during his working years. Collin and his beautiful wife, Lindsay have also blessed him with his first great grandchild, Charlotte Ann Davis.

Richard died at home with Hospice care surrounded by his family including his brother, Bobby and a very dear friend, Laura Tavernier, on July 31st. He will be forever remembered by his wife of 53 years, Susan, the above mentioned family members and a brother-in-law, Richard Morton of Norfork, AR, as well as several nieces and nephews.

Visitation will be held from 9am until the funeral service begins at 10 am at Scenic Hills UMC, 2847 Pembroke Rd Memphis, TN. We hope if you are a part of the antique car group that you will drive your car to this celebration of his life. A meal will be served afterwards and all are invited to join together in remembrance of Richard.

The family also requests, in lieu of flowers that donations be made to your favorite charity. Some of ours are; Scenic Hills United Methodist Church, The Mid-South Food Bank, Memphis Humane Shelter or Memphis Animal Services and Hospitality Hub of Memphis.