William Edward Schmitz

William Edward SchmitzWilliam Edward Schmitz was born September 22, 1905, in St. Joseph, Missouri, to Anna (née Boedeker) Schmitz and Joseph V. Schmitz, the sixth of seven children. He attended Marquette University in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, graduating in 1929, with the degree of Electrical Engineer. Early on, he served briefly as a pilot in the Army Air Corps and worked for the Los Angeles Gas and Electric Company. He then returned to Kansas City to work for the Army Corps of Engineers as head of a team of five engineers who spent approximately one year conducting a survey of the Secondary Triangulation Control System of the Missouri River between Rulo, Nebraska, (near Omaha) and Columbia, Missouri. This major project made possible the building of pile dikes and bank revetments which allow navigation of the river to this day.At the completion of the Missouri River Triangulation Project, Mr. Schmitz, still with the Army Corps of Engineers, volunteered to work as an engineer on the construction of Norris Dam in Tennessee. Here he met Anna Margaret Kitts of Jellico, Tennessee. They were married on Sept. 21, 1936, and made their home in Kansas City, Missouri, where he had transferred to the CAA (Civil Aeronautics Authority). Two daughters were born.Also a member of the Naval Reserve Civil Engineering Corps, Schmitz was ordered to active duty on June 9, 1941. He reported as a Lieutenant to the 5th Naval District Headquarters in Norfolk, Virginia. There, two of the numerous projects of which he was in charge were the construction of the Craney Island De- Perming Station in Norfolk and the construction of the Magnetic Range in Chesapeake Bay off Cape Charles. These projects were of the utmost importance for protecting the supply ships to the Atlantic Fleet against magnetic mines. In Norfolk, a third daughter was born. Schmitz was then assigned to operate the maintenance of an Air base taken over from the Army at Walnut Ridge, Arkansas. The purpose of this base was to train a Marine air group to fight the Kamikaze air menace in the Pacific. After a year of special training, the air group was deployed to the Pacific, and the base was returned to the Army. At this point, Ed was transferred to Gulfport, Mississippi, where he served under the Chief of the Public Works Department, having been promoted to the rank of Commander. In 1944, Ed was awarded the Certificate of Honor as a member of the Armed Forces. After the War, he continued as a member of the U.S. Navy Reserve, retiring in 1965 after 30 years of military service. In 1946, the family returned to Kansas City, where now Cmdr. Schmitz resumed working for the CAA until it was divided into the Civil Aeronautics Board and the Federal Aviation Administration. At that time he began working with the FAA. He was in charge of the construction of the Air Traffic Control Centers for the Midwest Region, which included the Kansas City Center at Olathe, and the centers in Denver, Minneapolis, Detroit and Indianapolis. He also established the Construction Engineering Group for the Chicago Region, a project that took approximately two years to complete. He retired from the FAA in 1969. Schmitz, a Commander in the Civil Engineering Corps of the USN and the USN Reserve, was a Fellow and Life Member of the American Society of Civil Engineers. He was a Life Member of the National Association of Federal Employees, a member of the Retired Officers Association and the Marquette University Alumni Association. He belonged to St. Agnes Parish for 60 years and was a member of the Knight of Columbus. In 2006, he became a member of Christ the King Parish. On Dec. 19, 2000, Cmdr. Schmitz was preceded in death by his beloved wife, Anna. He is survived by his daughters, Nancy Schmitz and husband Andre Berthiaume of Quebec, Canada, Elisabeth Donahue and husband Raymond of Greensboro, North Carolina., and Janet M. Schmitz of Wayne, Nebraska; his granddaughters, great-grandchildren, sisters- in-law, many nieces, nephews and good friends.Mass of Christian Burial was 10 a.m. Wednesday, December 30, at Christ the King Catholic Church, 8510 Wornall, Kansas City, Missouri. Entombment followed in Resurrection Cemetery, Lenexa, Kansas. Friends were invited to call from 8:30 to 10 a.m. Wednesday, at the church. Arrangements under the direction of McGilley Midtown Chapel, 20 West Linwood BlvdKansas City, Missouri816 ~ 753 ~ 6200